Selangor Government To Implement Three Main Tasks While Awaiting Langat 2

The Selangor state government will be implementing three main tasks to ensure adequate clean water supply while awaiting the completion of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant, including carrying out a RM900 million mitigation programme provided by the federal government.

Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said apart from the mitigation programme, the state government would start the Hybrid Off River Augmentation System (Horas) project in Sungai Selangor which has the capacity to supply between 600 and 700 million litres per day (MLD) of clean water or three billion litres by 2050.

"The ground-breaking ceremony for the project will be held in two weeks. Apart from that, the state government will also reduce non-revenue water (NRW) from 33 per cent to a lower level in six months," he said in a statement here today.

The federal government and the Selangor state government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to restructure the water industry in the state which became protracted from 2008.

Through the MoU, the state government will give the greenlight for the construction of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant and its distribution system (LRAL2) effective today and ensure all approvals for LRAL2 30 days from the date of the MoU signing.

The federal government is also prepared to inject additional funds to assist the state government in the take over of water concession companies to pave the way for the management of water supply services in Selangor to a state government-owned company.

The MoU also allowed the state government to bid for water concession companies such as Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH) and Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd (ABAAS).

Abdul Khalid said the takeover of the four concession companies was expected to be completed in three months and the four companies would be placed under one water consortium company under Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB), a fully-owned state government company.

"The takeover will involved the acquisition of equities as well as responsibilities and will not involved termination of non-management staff.

"KDEB will pay RM9.65 billion to shareholders of the four concession companies while the federal government will inject RM2 billion to assist the state government in the share takeover," he said.

-- BERNAMA