KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) is sending too few water tanker lorries to areas affected by the ongoing water supply disruption, says Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (Wecam).
Wecam president Saravanan Thambirajah said Syabas had also failed to provide consumers with a schedule of times when water tankers would be distributing water in their areas.
“They failed to anticipate problems and measures were not taken or even communicated to the people,” he said.
“Syabas’ preferred communication mode seems to be social media but that it is only updated once a day. And, the information it provides is not accurate.”
He said the taps were still dry in some areas where the water supply was supposed to be restored.
Saravanan said the injuries of the workers (at the Sungai Selangor water treatment plant in Ijok, Selangor) showed that the standard operating procedure and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health’s safety guidelines were not followed.
“They should have checked the pipes. They also said they don’t have expertise to fix the mentioned problem,” he said.
Saravanan urged the state government to hire more highly-skilled managers.
“Water rationing would have helped in certain areas. It has been four days since the problem began. This showd that the management is not capable of handling water related issues.
“They should have consultations with stakeholders to tackle this issue. Failure to do this, will lead to a water crisis,” he said.