WATER cuts affect livelihoods, said the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), calling for discounts on water bills as compensation for the hardship they caused.

Discounts are justified as the authorities have failed to prevent the factory, a repeat offender, from again polluting the waterways leading to the closure of water treatment plants, MTUC secretary-general J. Solomon said.

“The most disappointing aspect of this water cut is that they found the polluter to be a repeat offender (who was previously) fined RM60,000. How did the licensing authorities and enforcement officers allow this factory to continue discharging their waste into the raw water source? They have failed to monitor this factory and all others located near rivers,” he said.

“Are labour inspectors, Department of Occupational Safety and Health enforcement teams carrying out regular inspections? Such incidents have deprived the people of treated water supply and disrupted their livelihood.

“The people cannot tolerate such slipshod management that results in the disruption of workers’ lives. They should be given a discount in their water bill as compensation for the hardship caused,” MTUC said.

The culprit responsible for the latest water disruption to strike the Klang Valley was identified as a heavy machinery maintenance plant owned by Yip Chee Seng & Sons Sdn Bhd.

Selangor environment exco Hee Loy Sian said the factory’s waste and used machinery oil were allowed to flow into the river. The same factory was fined RM60,000 earlier this year for a pollution offence.

Police last night arrested four brothers running the factory and will obtain a remand order for them today.

More than 1.2 million accounts have had no water supply since Thursday in Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat after pollution was detected in Sg Selangor which feeds four treatment plants supplying the Klang Valley.

As of last night, the plants have resumed operations but for cleaning and flushing purposes only, and it is unclear when water supply would be fully restored.

MTUC said the people have had to endure water supply cuts because of old pipes and pollution.

It noted Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, the country’s most developed urban centres, suffered the most unscheduled water supply disruptions between 2014 and 2018, according to data from the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry.

“The Selangor government and the federal water authority, Syarikat Perbekalan Air Nasional must get their act together to stop this frequent hardship once and for all. 

“National and state leaders should change the attitudes of these agencies if we aspire to be a fully developed and high income nation. (If not), we are not doing justice to taxpayers.” – September 5, 2020.