DAP’s Klang MP Charles Santiago has asked the Selangor state government to bring in the World Health Organisation (WHO) experts to conduct a forensic water quality study on the water that the state plans to extract from former mining ponds to be channeled to the water treatment plants.

In a statement delivered in Parliament, Charles also argued that the studies conducted by the state and federal governments in recent times on the water quality at former mining ponds was done mostly at times of huge rainfall.

“If there is rainfall the heavy metal content gets diluted. We can’t do a Houdini and make it disappear,” Charles ( left ) said.

He argued that the real metal concentration in the ponds could only surface during the dry season, which is when the state plans to use the former mining ponds in Bestari Jaya, as a source of water.

“The authorities should have conducted a similar study during a period of drought,” he added.

Charles warned that there will be “serious consequences” of a wrong strategy, that would have the potential to effect lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

He said that since the existing water treatment plants use conventional methods, they would not be able to clean the metal concentration from the water.

“To treat heavy metals, treatment plants must be designed to do the job. This is complicated and expensive,” he added.