Amid the tussle between the federal government and the Selangor state administration over the Langat 2 water treatment plant, more than half of Kajang residents want the construction to be carried on, a recent poll by Universiti Selangor (Unisel) shows.

The state-owned university’s senior lecturer Muhammad Shamshinor Abdul Azzis ( right ) revealed that 74 percent of the constituents think that the project should be continued.

The week-long study was conducted since nomination day on March 11, with 394 Kajang voters being interviewed.

Meanwhile, 59.2 percent of the respondents opined that Mentri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim had not been influenced by the federal government while making decisions for the water restructuring exercise and the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU).

On Monday, the state government insisted that it will not sign a development order for Langat 2 until the federal government made sure that the takeover of the state’s water service industry goes through.

This came after Water, Energy and Green Technology Minister Maximus Ongkili had reportedly claimed that the federal government will not yet invoke Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) to revoke the licences of three water concessionaires who had rejected the Selangor government’s RM9.65 billion offer.

Most don’t blame state govt over water crisis

In the survey, asked if “the water crisis in Selangor is an example of the state government’s failure”, over 73.5 percent of the respondents answered: “No.”

As for the reasons given, Muhammad Shamshinor said most of them stated that it was due to the dry season and mismanagement by water concessionaires like Syabas.

Since last month, the state had been experiencing insufficient water supply which has affected more than 700,000 families.

Meanwhile, the respondents were asked to share their perception on national issues, with findings showed 85.4 percent of those polled describing the increase in the cost of living as “unreasonable”.

Muhammad Shamshinor added that over 72.3 percent of the interviewed voters opined that the scheduled implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) next year is not supported by the rakyat.

On religion, up to 57 percent of the respondents think that usage of the word ‘Allah’ has been politicised by BN leaders.

In addition, asked if “people still trust media content by mainstream agencies like TV3 and Utusan Malaysia ”, a total of 68.8 percent of the group said “No”.