Water rationing for some 60,185 households in Kuala Langat, Hulu Langat and Sepang will commence this Thusday, announced Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas).

These households rely on the Batu 11 and Bukit Tampoi water treatment plants which draw water from Sungai Langat.

However, both plants have been shut down since Jan 28 as they cannot process the river water where the ammonia concentration has increased due to the dry weather.

Some of these areas have already gone without water for almost two weeks.

Syabas executive director (technical development) V Subramaniam said the rationing plan was presented at the Selangor Ecnomic Action Council on Feb 18, and later forwarded to the National Water Services Commission (Span) on Feb 21.

“At the same time, Syabas also prepared and presented a detailed scheduled water distribution plan for the Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang areas...

“The scheduled water distribution plan for Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang areas was approved by Span on Feb 24,” he told a press conference at the Syabas headquarters this afternoon.

As such, Subramaniam, who today unveiled the plan which will take effect on Feb 27, said the state government’s accusation that Syabas refused to prepare a contingency plan was untrue.

'Rotational basis'

 

Under the plan, residential areas there are divided into two zones where they will receive water for two days and another two days without on a rotational basis.

 

The water rationing schedule can be downloaded here . The rationing is expected to last until March 31.

Subramaniam said on days where there will be water, the supply will begin at 4pm and then discontinued about 41 hours later, at 9am.

 

And on days where there is no water, the supply will stop at 9am and resume some 55 hours later at 4pm, he added.

 

However, he noted that depending on the distance certain residential areas were from the water tanks, the time may vary.

 

"On days when there is no water, it means there will be no water supply whatsoever, there will not even be water tankers unless for emergency cases.

 

"Therefore users must make early preparation and store enough water on days when there is supply," he said.

 

He added that Syabas will try to ensure priority areas such as hospitals will continue to receive water, but this will be subject to how the implementation goes.

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