Like an interesting TV series, water supply management in this country runs into many episodes. Here are some of them.

When water was taken out of the Ministry of Works and transferred to the Ministry of Energy, Water and Telecommunications early last year, the public was elated when Dr Lim Keng Yaik, the minister with a new broom, boldly announced a number of initiatives to revamp the water supply industry in this country, the most important of which are:

1. Putting on hold all water supply privatisation projects;

2. Establishing a National Water Services Commission to regulate privatised water supplies;

3. Establishing benchmarks for all water supply operators to comply and the

4. Transfer of the jurisdictions of water treatment and distribution from the state governments to the federal government.

At long last there was a light at the end of the tunnel for many water consumers in this country who had been for years complaining of water shortage, dirty water, etc. without much response from the authorities.

However, a bombshell was dropped when in December last year when the government gave the green light to Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), a subsidiary of Puncak Niaga Holdings to proceed with the privatisation of Perbadanan Urus Air Selangor (Puas). Lim's lame excuse was that the financial situation of Puas had become critical.

With the floodgates now open, the states can now gaily go ahead to award water privatisation contracts before there is another U-turn. Less than two months after the privatsation of Puas, the local dailies reported that the water departments of Negeri Sembilan and Pahang would be privatised.

In his latest bombshell, the energy, water and telecommunications minister announced that water supply services in all states would not be privatised . The minister further explained that the National Water Services Commission, in the process of being set up, would only be used to regulate the water supply services in the states.

From all the above it is clear that the minister in charge of water in this country is fickle-minded and is now well known for his frequent about-turns. All this has caused a lot of confusion with little or no progress made in the revamp of the water industry in this country. We are now sadly back to square one.