Since Syabas took over the water supply distribution in the Klang Valley in 2005, it encountered numerous problems with high-rise apartments with bulk meters. Six years on, the problem is still unsolved.
WHEN water supply to condominium and apartment blocks with bulk meters is cut for not settling overdue bills, everyone, including those who have been paying their share diligently, are penalised and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) is blamed for being cruel and unfair.
This has created a lot of tension and that is why Syabas has been pushing for the migration of bulk water meters to individual ones in condominiums, apartments and flats.
Syabas corporate communications executive director Abdul Halem Mat Som said while it was unfair to paying customers, there was no choice in the matter.
Halem said Syabas proposed to the state and federal government six years ago to enable those living in flats and condominiums to migrate from bulk to individual meters as they felt that it was the only way to solve the problems the company was facing.
But the response has been poor. Since 2006, out of the 2,290 bulk meter account holders under Syabas, only 1,180 applications for migration have been received.
The highest number of applications were from Kuala Lumpur, Gombak, Petaling, Klang and followed by Hulu Kelang, Hulu Selangor and Sepang.
Abdul Halem said Syabas had carried out inspections at all 1,180 condominiums and apartments and approval for migration had been given to 460 while 205 had already been activated. The number, however, is dismal.
Benefits of migration
Migration consumers pay directly to Syabas and will not be penalised if their neighbours do not pay.
And what is even better is that with migration consumers pay less.
“Migration enables apartment and condominium occupants to enjoy the tiered residential rates which is lower if consumption is minimal compared with the flat charge of RM1.38/m3 for bulk meter,’’ he said.
“They will enjoy a lesser tariff rate of 57 sen for the first 20 cubic metres compared with RM1.38 for condominiums and 80 sen for low-cost apartments,’’ Abdul Halem said.
In Selangor, migration would enable those living in high-rise buildings to enjoy free water for the first 20 cubic metres.
“When the government gave the green light to push for migration; we have been trying through various efforts to help consumers enjoy the lower rates as well as solve the problems faced by JMBs and management companies.
“We must do this even though it would mean that Syabas would have to incur extra cost and hire more meter readers,’’ he said.
Stumbling block
One of the biggest hurdles Syabas faces is getting the co-operation of the residents and management company. In the case of the management company, some of them are reluctant to migrate because the bulk meter is their only tool to force residents to pay maintenance fees.
“Getting all the owners to agree to migration can be difficult since one of the conditions is that owners have to settle all their outstanding fees. And then you have cases where both the residents and the JMB have co-operated but the developer refuses to migrate because they do not want to lose their deposit,’’ he said.
In instances like this, Abdul Halem said it would be good to have government support especially from the Commissioner of Buildings who had been appointed by the government to solve problems with difficult management companies and developers.
“We try to make it easy, but at the end of the day without the co-operation from the people it would be difficult to carry out migration,’’ he said.
“Perhaps the government should push for laws to make migration compulsory for high-rise buildings. It would certainly help solve many of the problems residents are facing and more importantly help low-income earners enjoy lower water tariff.
No comments:
Post a Comment