MOST people often take sewerage service for granted and will only take notice of Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) when their pipe is clogged or overflowed.
IWK chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Kadir Mohd Din said it was common for people to say that the national sewerage company was invisible but that was an indication of its efficiency.
He said the common causes for sewerage problems were old piping and lack of civic consciousness.
On the go: IWK still helps to desludge individual septic tanks if requested.
Abdul Kadir said the pipes were rehabilitated in stages according to available funds, but it did not help when sewerage plant processes failed due to illegal discharge of materials like grease and diapers that could not be broken down, theft of parts, and power failure.
“People must realise that IWK is owned by the government and the government belongs to the rakyat, which means that IWK belongs to the people.
“If there are any problems or theft at sewerage plants or pipes, people will suffer.
“Even a stolen manhole cover could lead to someone being injured or life lost as the hole cannot be seen properly at night,” he said.
IWK is mainly responsible for operating and maintaining the sewage treatment plants and network of underground pipes.
“Since a ruling that was enforced in January 2008, IWK no longer provides scheduled desludging services to individual septic tanks.
“This service is now open to licensed contractors who are given permits by Span (National Water Services Commission), though IWK will still help should requests be made,” said Abdul Kadir.
Abdul Kadir likened the sewerage system to an ICU (intensive care unit) because problems had to be attended to almost immediately, within 24 hours.
The sewerage charges for domestic premises, irrespective of whether it is a bungalow or condominium, is RM8 per month (27 sen per day or RM96 per year).
For low-cost houses the rate is RM2 per month and RM3 for government quarters. There is no charge for religious venues and most welfare homes.
“The RM8 per month charge is peanuts because it costs RM18 per month to run the sewerage service for houses, without making a profit.
“IWK is a service-oriented, not profit-oriented company, with the government partly subsidising its service.
“It requires some RM33bil to cover sewerage treatment service in Malaysia for 30 years,” said Abdul Kadir.
He said the cumulative debt from 1997 to 2010 for domestic, commercial and government services amounted up to RM750mil.
“IWK managed to reduce that debt to RM600mil, mainly through awareness campaigns and using the friendly approach to get people to pay.
“Most debtors come from the domestic sector, though the percentage of people who settle their bills has gone up to 80% this year compared with 30% in 1997,” said Abdul Kadir.
He said IWK had been regularly running multi-lingual awareness campaigns to encourage the public to pay their bills on time and highlight the need for regular sewerage service in protecting the environment and public health.
“I hope the people are aware that this is a necessary service.
“There may come a time when water supply and sewerage services are integrated under a single service provider, hence users would be charged based on volumetric rate usage,” he said.
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