JOHOR BARU: The Johor government will propose to the federal government to put in place a coordinated set of laws that can be enforced by all water supply-related agencies to address the problem of pollution at rivers.
Johor Public Works, Rural and Regional Development Committee chairman Datuk Hasni Mohammad said this needed to be done following cases of pollution at raw water resources such as rivers, which in turn had affected operations of water treatment plants and caused water supply disruptions.
Hasni said there were conflicting laws among the state water utility company SAJ Ranhill Sdn Bhd, Johor Water Regulatory Body (Bakaj), Department of Environment (DoE), Forestry Department and other agencies when it came to nabbing river polluters.
"There is a need to coordinate the laws. In Johor, the laws do not reflect how important it is to monitor the threats towards our water resources.
"We can see the differences in laws as with the Forestry (Department) that handles encroachment matters, Bakaj which monitors water intake points and whether anyone is diverting the water resources away from the water supply chain, and Department of Environment (DoE) which handles river polluters," said Hasni after the opening ceremony of the Water Leaders Forum organised by the Johor government at Mutiara Hotel here today.
Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin launched the forum. Also present was Singapore Environment and Natural Resources Minister, Masagos Zulkifli Masagos Mohamad.
Citing an example of conflicting laws in matters of water pollution, Hasni said that Bakaj and DoE had different measurement criteria to define a polluted body of water.
"For example, the DoE defines polluted discharges as a pollutant that is contained in 10 parts per million (ppm) of water.
"However, Bakaj's enactment says that pollutants found in 1.5 parts per million (ppm) of water is considered to be polluted discharge.
"If a factory is found to have 8 ppm of pollutants in its discharge, the DoE cannnot take action, but it will leave Bakaj to be in a bind.
"These laws have some weaknesses and they need to be improved. The state government will bring up the matter with the federal government," said Hasni.
He said that federal level agencies such as the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) needs to review the effectiveness of enforcement under the country's water industry policies.
"That's why the organiser of today's Forum invited SPAN's former chief executive officer Datuk Teo Yen Hua to speak on the topic 'A decade of Water Industry Reform- Time to Reflect'.
"We need to look into whether the country has met the objectives of SPAN and other goals in the restructuring of the water industry," he said.
Hasni said that Malaysia and Johor could benefit from taking a leaf out of the water industry in Singapore, which comes under a sole authority, Public Utilities Board, and has better coordination of laws all along the chain of water supply.
Recent cases of water supply disruptions in the past three months in Johor were traced to ammonia pollution in rivers.
On July 1, water supply to 6,000 account holders in Simpang Renggam was disrupted due to ammonia pollution in Sungai Benut. The ammonia contamination was traced to a damaged leachate tank near one of its tributaries that runs along the Southern Waste Management's CEP1 landfill.
On July 23, ammonia pollution in Sungai Skudai caused a disruption in the regular water supply in eight areas in Johor Baru when production at the Sultan Ismail water treatment plant dropped to 50 per cent.
On a related issue, Hasni said the state government was spending RM500 million this year for water supply projects in Johor, including the Penyaluran Air Mentah Iskandar Malaysia (PAMIM) project, water treatment plant in Kluang and temporary raw water transfer project from Sungai Lenggor to Congok dam in
Mersing.