KUALA LUMPUR: The National Water Service Commission (SPAN) is looking at mechanisms to address odour pollution caused by illegal dumping, including providing
token rewards to informants.
The commission said it was impossible to deploy personnel to guard every manhole which was linked to water sources.
SPAN chairman Charles Santiago said the details would be discussed at a meeting with Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) and Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK) tomorrow.
He said SPAN was taking the latest water disruption seriously as odour pollution cases were caused by irresponsible parties who dumped their waste illegally into manholes.
“They may have the key to open the manholes or they forcibly removed the covers and disposed the waste which resulted in odour pollution being faced by the people of Selangor today.
“This happened maybe because they wanted to cut operation costs.
“This is quite irresponsible as this has caused billions in loses and affected millions of people when the water treatment plants were forced to stop operating.
“We have identified the chemicals disposed into the manhole. “However the investigation is still ongoing and the results will be made public once the report is completed,” he said today.
The Semenyih water treatment plant was forced to halt its operations yesterday, following the detection of odour pollution, causing unscheduled water disruption to some 1.5 million people in Petaling, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang.
Santiago said the enforcement authorities would make more rounds at identified hotspots to prevent this from recurring.
“However, these irresponsible parties are smart and always monitor the movements of the enforcement authorities.
“That’s why we need to find a comprehensive and innovative solution,” he said.
Illegal disposal into an IWK manhole has been identified as the cause of odour pollution at the Semenyih water treatment plant.
Meanwhile, SPAN, in a separate statement, said that an investigation paper on the odour pollution would be submitted to the deputy public prosecutor so that action could be taken against the offender under the Water Services Industry Act 2006.
