THE Raw Water Guarantee Scheme (SJAM) – developed by the Selangor government to ensure no disruption to operations of water treatment plants (LRAs) when pollution occurs – will be operational in stages from October.

Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said the raw water pumping project had achieved more than 51% completion and was expected to be fully operational early next year.

He said under SJAM, consumers could enjoy uninterrupted water supply as polluted raw water would be prevented from entering the LRA.

“Once this project is fully completed, if raw water pollution occurs in the two rivers, LRAs such as Rantau Panjang, SSP 1,2,3 and Semenyih will be able to continue supplying water to consumers without being affected by the pollution,” he said after officiating the SJAM today.

He said the initiative was part of the state government’s efforts to deal with incidents of raw water pollution that occurred in previous years and affected 1.6 million Air Selangor account holders. 

“Based on our experience in managing the pollution of raw water sources, we were able to identify the source of the pollution within 12 hours, but there were incidents that required a longer time. 

“However, our goal is to avoid a work stoppage of more than four hours because if the work stoppage is more than four hours, there will be disruption to user accounts,” he said. 

On dealing with the El Nino phenomenon, Amirudin said the level of raw water sources in dams and reservoirs was at 95%, therefore capable of meeting the needs of domestic and industrial users for a period of four to six months. – Bernama, May 18, 2023.