DENGKIL: Foul-smelling pollutants at Sungai Semenyih and Sungai Langat, which forced Syarikat Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) to suspend its water treatment plants yesterday, allegedly originated from a duck and goose farm following cleaning activities there.
Selangor Environment, Green Technology, Science, and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Hee Loy Sian said a big-scale cleaning operation at the farm near Sungai Pajam in Negri Sembilan yesterday produced pollutants which entered a Sungai Semenyih tributary and forced Air Selangor to halt operations of water treatment plants in Sungai Semenyih and Bukit Tampoi.
This caused water disruptions to more than 300,000 water account holders in 273 locations in Petaling, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat, and Sepang.
"Investigations by Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (Luas) at Sungai Pajam detected a foul smell similar to that of a carcass," he told a press conference today.
Present were Luas director Datuk Hashim Osman and the state Department of Environment director Nor Aziah Jaafar.
Hee said subsequent investigation by Luas at Sungai Batang Benar also detected a foul smell, believed to be from the Nilai 3 Industrial Area in Negri Sembilan.
He said the Negri Sembilan state government and its water regulatory body were informed of the matter and will jointly conduct an integrated investigation at the sites.
He said for the time being, Luas, with cooperation from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, has taken proactive steps by pumping water from Tasik Idaman Sungai Buah to Sungai Semenyih to increase the dilution rate at the river with an estimated capacity of 25 million litres a day (MLD).
Asked on the time frame for the resumption of water supply, Hee said that the water treatment plants can only release odourless water with zero threshold odour number (TON) value.
"As of 9.30am, the reading at both the Sungai Semenyih and Bukit Tampoi treatment plants stood at eight TON."