WHEN the taps at his Selangor flat ran dry last month, Safar Sulong was taking care of his 14 grandchildren.

“You can’t say no to kids and say there’s a water cut. If they are thirsty, they need to drink. If they need to pee, they need to pee,” the 64-year-old army veteran told The Malaysian Insight.

“Can you imagine what it was like for me?” he said of the supply disruption that left millions without water in parts of southern Selangor just before Christmas.

Safar became even more livid when asked about the plan to raise water tariffs nationwide this year, at between 6 sen and 71 sen per 1,000l.

“It’s not justifiable. You want to raise tariffs, but your service is so bad. They have no reasons to raise the tariffs,” said the Bandar Puteri Puchong resident.

“During the water cut, I didn’t see the water company sending water tankers or bottles. It was hard, and things were made hard for us.”

His sentiment was echoed by almost all of the 10 families The Malaysian Insight interviewed on their experience with state water operator Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd.

They were asked about how supply disruptions in the state affected their lives and their response to the possibility of an increase in tariffs.

Water cuts due to unscheduled shutdowns of water treatment plants (WTPs) in the country’s most populous state were a persistent problem last year.

In July, some 1.1 million households and businesses went without water for three days when three WTPs had to halt operations because of diesel pollution in Sg Selangor, their raw water source.

Two months earlier, thousands of Klang residents suffered a supply cut when a portion of the West Coast Expressway collapsed and damaged three main pipes.

The weekend before Christmas, two WTPs along Sg Semenyih were shut down after solvents were illegally dumped into a nearby manhole.

Selangor was not the only state to experience dry taps last year. In April, Johor folk had to undergo rationing as the supply of raw water quickly depleted during a heatwave.

The crises led to the National Water Services Commission (Span), the country’s water services regulator, to propose a water and river authority to oversee every aspect of the industry.

Lower than electricity, telco charges

Currently, the management of water supply is divided between federal bodies such as Span, private companies that treat and distribute water like Air Selangor, and state bodies that oversee rivers and dams.

The plan to raise tariffs is to allow operators to meet the higher cost of treating and distributing water, leading to better services, said the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry.

Deputy Minister Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji said consultations with stakeholders began in early 2018 and involved all states.

“There are some states that have not increased their tariffs for the past 30 years, and they cannot continue to maintain their water supply system with the current tariffs because of the rise in operating costs.

“The increase will not burden the B40 group as it is only between 6 sen and 71 sen per 1,000l. And, it will result in better service.

“The rates are far lower than the charges for electricity, telecommunications and natural gas.”

He said the ultimate decision to raise tariffs, and by how much, will be made by the individual states and water operators.

During the pre-Christmas water crisis, factory worker Krishna Veny collected rainwater to flush the toilets and clean her house.

The 46-year-old had to send her three children, mother-in-law and sister to live with relatives in Seremban, Negri Sembilan, so that they did not have to deal with the supply disruption.

“Only my husband and I stayed. When the water tanker came, there was only enough water for half a block of flats,” she said of the Subang Perdana housing complex, which has about 10 blocks.

“By the time the water tanker arrived at my block, all the water was gone. And they didn’t even send more.”

Krishna and her neighbour, Murthy Aramugam, are not happy about the planned increase in tariffs.

“I don’t agree with the tariff increase especially after what happened. And it was not the first time we had to endure such disruptions,” said Murthy, a 52-year-old factory supervisor.

The Sg Semenyih WTP shutdown affected 1.5 million residents in Bangi, Kajang, Dengkil, Subang and Puchong.

Set benchmark or don’t raise tariffs

Veteran consumer rights activist Paul Selvaraj said some residents waited with pails till the early hours of the morning for water tankers that did not arrive as promised.

Although his family were among those affected by the Sg Semenyih water cut, he believes that a tariff increase is justified given the challenges faced by water operators.

“There has to be a balance between giving something affordable and maintaining regular service. But we should not compromise when it comes to regular, uninterrupted service,” said the Federation of Consumer Associations secretary.

“We can’t just keep giving away free water. People must be taught that there is a cost to treating and distributing it.”

Water and Energy Research Association president S. Piarapakaran said a rise in tariffs is justified only when it is done transparently.

This includes making operators show how they arrive at the new rate so that there are no hidden charges passed on to consumers, he said.

The government must set a benchmark for the cost of treating and distributing water, he said, so that the public can compare and see which operators are efficient.

“For instance, if the benchmark is set at 15 sen per cubic metre or 1,000l, and an operator decides to charge more than the benchmark, then the public will know the operator is inefficient.

“Operators have to build infrastructure, we all accept that. But they need to be transparent about the costs if they want to increase tariffs.” – January 4, 2020.