Due to Poor Planning, Now Selangor Government to Spent RM 10 Million on "Water Pumps"

The Selangor executive council has approved a whopping RM10 million to buy "water pumps" to pump water into the Sungai Selangor dam from former mining pools nearby in a bid to raise the dam’s water level.

The allocation would be used to purchase high capacity pumps, said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim yesterday following his announcement a day earlier that the state was looking into alternative water sources to arrest the state’s water woes. The pumps will be purchased via direct negotiation and not open tender due to various reasons which could not be disclosed. 

The Sungai Selangor dam, which supplies water to some 60 per cent of consumers in the Klang Valley, is at 38.97 per cent, some 20 per cent lower than the safe level.

“The infrastructure will also be used for pumping water into the Sungai Selangor dam even when it has reached the control level to prepare for the dry season from end of May until September,” said Khalid.

He said if the results prove satisfactory, the state government would review the water rationing exercise that had implemented since March. Water rationing was initially scheduled to end on April 30 but Khalid had indicated that it could be extended.

Khalid also said that though the water levels at six other dams in Selangor had increased above 50 per cent, they only provided water supply to a small number of users in the Klang Valley.

“We hope the people would bear with us, support us and give us their trust as we resolve the problems, including our attempt to plan ahead in ensuring sufficient raw water for the coming dry season. We admit that we had overlooked this previously” he said.

Due to the grouses voiced by the public on the poor water management by the state government, he said the state government would conduct a press conference every two days to give updates on the raw water status, starting this Friday.