YOURSAY 'Make plans based on tomorrow's predictions, not today's conditions.'

Selangor set to end water rationing next week

Skong: Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, you are supposed to have all the experts advising you on this water issue. The question is, why wait for almost two months before taking such action?

Can you imagine how the rakyat has suffered over this period? Guess "sack the bugger" is effective after all! There are lots more things the rakyat is unhappy about. Time for you to step down.

MrM: Raining cats and dogs now, but next month till August supposed to be a drought. Make plans based on tomorrow's predictions, not today's conditions. The fact is that Malaysians waste a lot of water.

Relevancy: In any corporate management and processes, contingency plans mean that if a threshold or critical juncture is encountered and met, the business continuity plan is enabled. The question here is, why the contingency plan for business continuity is not executed accordingly, instead of turning to rationing as the priority (downtime) mitigation step to solve the issue? Really illogical.

Is downtime of business the preferred choice over continuity of business? Not a very assuring business model plan on that, Khalid.

Pisasu 7: Maybe we can also pump in the water when we have flash floods or we carry buckets in the car and scoop water from the roads, too. Klang MP Charles Santiago, where are you, so-called water expert?

Fairnessforall: Water and electricity are necessities, not luxuries. They should not have been privatised in the first place. This whole fiasco is the fault of BN, which is greedy and allowed its cronies to take over these basic necessities because the BN is greedy for commission.

The government, whether Pakatan Rakyat or BN, should take back control of water and electricity and cut out all the unnecessary expenses of high salaries for the CEOs who sit on their butt, do nothing and take home big fat salaries, resulting in the people having to pay high and excessive rates for water and electricity.

We should demand that these two basic necessities be under the government, not privatised. Then the problem will automatically be resolved. As long as these companies are privatised, they will only be thinking of making money and the end result is the people will suffer.

Abasir: Fairnessforall, well put! But quite obviously, neither Umno nor Pakatan think in that manner. They do not see the privatisation of essential services as morally wrong and an abdication of responsibility of a legitimate government.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad started this systematic theft of vital services by passing them on to his cronies in return for an annuity to Umno, covered under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). The privatisation has also included the police and the Armed Forces (and that is hardly a secret).

505 rakyat: Six years late. You knew of the problem six years ago. The fact that you now come up with this solution does not speak well of your competence from a management perspective.

Hanyayangbenar: Good job, MB Khalid. At least he has taken the necessary actions to solve the water issue. Compare that to Pahang, where many parts of the state still do not have access to clean water since BN came into power.

Pemerhati: Khalid said, “Some of the water is cleaner than river water because the ponds are already very old, some have been there for 30 years." One would have expected such a ridiculous statement from one of the many mediocre BN ministers and it looks like that this MB’s calibre is not very different from that of the mediocre BN ministers.

Anyone with a little bit of common sense will know that the age of a pond has nothing to do with the quality of water in it. The water in a pond in an agricultural area may contain pesticides that may have been washed down by the rain from the farms that use those pesticides.

The only way to be sure if the water in a particular pond is safe is to carry out an analysis and check its quality. It is very important to test the quality of the water in the ponds because if there is some sort of pesticide or other poisons in them, then the normal water treatment process is unlikely to remove those poisons.

Damntlwbn: Mr MB, you can’t give the Selangor people better roads, and now water is also a problem. Those are the very basics for our daily lives. Please pass the baton to others.

Caripasal: Try to drink the water from the septic plant abandoned for 30 years, and tell us it is cleaner and safer than river water. Use common sense.

Supercession: Khalid, if you extend water rationing into May, you can expect Umno as well as hordes of Pakatan supporters who have lost faith in your ability to manage Selangor to stage protests right outside your office. Before that happens, we suggest you start moving mountains to fill up the dams till they overflow.

ONG: "We have done it (contingency plans) earlier... We have other contingency plans, it's just that we have not told you." Yeah! Keep everything secret while the people suffer! He thinks he is making a smart statement, but I think making such a statement shows he has no respect for citizens and taxpayers. I bet his residence has plenty of water.

Casey: It's obvious that the water concessionaires, as profit-making entities, are not going to hand over the water concessions to the state government on a silver platter. It's equally obvious that they've the power on their side.

The ensuing drama, from Khalid's reassurance that Selangor has ample water supply; to the inconvenience and suffering the people have to put up with; to the arbitrageurs selling water to the industrial users; and to Khalid's announcement that water, water everywhere except where it should be, are now unfolding right before the people's eyes. Khalid is no longer the beacon in the eyes of the people. Should we continue to trust Khalid? Should we submit to a dictator?

Changeagent: So shameful to have this persistent water problem in a tropical country with money. Guess the money's gone. So are the brains.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .