Air Selangor panel member Dzulkefly Ahmad has strongly denied that the Selangor government is slow in dealing with the water issue in the state.

The “mainstream media”, he said, is out to tarnish the state government's reputation, pointing at Utusan Malaysia, which had said “when the issue of electricity supply arose, only then did Syabas plan to study the power upgrades for both the water treatment plants”.

“There is no such issue that the Selangor government was slow to take action,” Dzulkefly, who is also Amanah strategy director, said in statement today.

SSP Plants 1, 2 and 3 are equipped with generators with the capacity of 5MW and voltage supply of 3.3kV that can generate about 60 percent of each plant's capacity, he explained.

When the mandatory 16-hour maintenance work is being carried out, these generators will be activated, he said, though there would still be a small amount of “shortfall”.

It is through the state government's quick action in activating these standby generators that the hyped-up crisis was avoided, he said.

“Information from trusted sources confirmed that 90 percent of the 'shortfall' has been dealt with and only 10 percent can hopefully be restored completely by tomorrow,” Dzulkefly said.

Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali was not slow in upgrading the generators, he said, because it is following the standard operating procedure and the generators were not in urgent need of an upgrade.

National Water Services Commission (Span) should be helping solve the problem but unfortunately, Span released confusing statements which caused consumers to worry, Dzulkefly added.

“Clearly, something is not right when a federal agency 'politicises' an issue that affects consumers and the rakyat,” he said.

The maintenance works by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) this week, affecting water treatment plants in Hulu Selangor, had caused concerns of a Christmas Eve without water supply.

Azmin said the state would explore ways to ensure those preparing for Christmas celebrations on Dec 24 would not be inconvenienced.

He said further delays to maintenance would risk breakdown and downtime of up to one month.