IWK: Latest technology used to treat sludge

INDAH Water Konsotium (IWK) said its Kuala Sawah plant in Negri Sembilan is equipped with the latest technology to treat sludge to the required environmental standards.

IWK communications head Amin Lin Abdullah said the public sewerage facility at Kuala Sawah was one of the most modern in the country.

“There is no illegal dumping of sludge. The processed dry sludge was temporarily stored in a sewerage reserved land within the fenced area of the treatment plant and safely disposed of at approved landfill sites as cover material,” he said.

“The sewage treatment processes in all public sewerage facilities to prevent pollution are regulated by the Department of Environment and IWK’s sewerage services are regulated by the National Water Services Commission.

“We ensure that the public sewage treatment plants are operated and maintained efficiently every day to preserve the environment, safeguard the water resources and protect public health,” he said. - TheStar

IWK fined RM2,000 and ordered to clean up act

INDAH Water Konsortium (IWK) has been slapped on the wrist for illegally dumping sludge near its treatment plant in Kuala Sawah, about 10kms from Seremban town.
Negri Sembilan Department of Environment (DoE) director Charanpal Singh said IWK Kuala Sawah was fined RM2,000.

“We also ordered them to clean up their act,” he said, adding it was the first offence by IWK in the state.
He added that the 900 tonnes of sludge would be dumped at the Bukit Palong landfill in Lukut.
Asked if the small fine was effective in deterring industries from polluting the environment, Charanpal said the fine applied to unscheduled dumping of non-toxic waste.
“The law provides for a maximum fine of RM5,000 for major offences but this is not toxic waste,” he said.
Charanpal said DoE was yet to determine what caused the foul-up at the plant.

“Whatever it is they have cleaned up their act and DoE will be monitoring them,” he said.
On Tuesday, StarMetro reported that the bungle occurred at the plant due a mechanical malfunction.
Initially to prevent the massive overflow of sludge, the workers erected a barricade but it collapsed and started to spread to the surrounding areas.

The breakdown in communication, failure to identify a new dumping ground and lack of funds to buy diesel to operate a wheel loader were factors which were said to have contributed to the illegal dumping of wet sludge.
When villagers uncovered the incident in late February, IWK worked round the clock to undo the mess.
Private contractors were engaged to dig up and bury the wet sludge.

According to an internal report put together following the mess, IWK Kuala Sawah did not address the problem of lack of dumping ground after the South Waste Management (SWM) refused to allow all of Kuala Sawah sludge to be dumped at its site in Pagoh, Likut.
In the report, SWM detected high moisture content in the sludge and started limiting the number of lorries transporting sludge the dumping site. - TheStar

Choppy waters for bonds

AS the pressure of a deadlock in the restructuring of Selangor's water industry builds up by the day, its negative impact is also becoming more apparent.

On Wednesday, Malaysian Rating Corp (MARC) downgraded seven water sector-related bonds while RAM Ratings had also recently maintained its negative watch over several issuances.
It has been reported that the Federal Government is likely to step in to resolve potential financial fallouts as a result of possible defaults of the water bonds worth billions of ringgit.
The restructuring process in the state is part of a larger national initiative which is being spearheaded by a RM20bil Islamic debt programme by CIMB group.

The bondholders are no minnows and include some very big names in the financial industry.
“The latest development, referring to MARC's downgrades, further validates our view that renewed attempts to find closure to Selangor's water impasse remain challenging,” said AmResearch in a report on April 6.
Indeed, more than two years have passed and nothing substantial has come out of the various attempts to consolidate the water sector in the Pakatan Rakyat-controlled state.

The delay has largely been due to disagreements over who is the rightful party to consolidate the sector and have control over its operations.
Understandably, the bondholders are getting more nervous by the day as some of the bonds issued by the water companies for the restructuring process are near to defaulting because they (the companies) have not received payments from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), the principal concessionaire in the state.
Syabas has not been able to pay because it did not get a 37% tariff hike which it was supposed to get two years ago as the Selangor government claimed that Syabas did not fulfil certain criteria for that hike.
In the middle of all this is Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, a listed company which has seen its stock price fall by more than 30% since two years ago.
Puncak, which is the core water company in Selangor and controls most companies including Syabas, is said to be linked closely to Barisan Nasional. Observers say this adds political complications to the restructuring process.

Puncak concluded its latest financial year ended Dec 31, 2010 on a low note, coming in at about 80% of analysts' expectations caused largely by increasing losses in subsidiaries as a result of the non-existent tariff hike.
“The deteriorating credit profile of Syabas, as the offtaker, is likely to affect that of Puncak Niaga, whose account receivables' levels are becoming unmanageable,” said MARC.
The prolonged deadlock in the restructuring of the Selangor water sector has raised questions regarding the state and the Federal Governments' stance toward providing timely financial support to the affected issuers, particularly given the approaching debt maturities for many of the rated issues over the coming months, the rating house said.

The initial plan was for the state's water assets to be consolidated by having them taken over by a unit of the Federal Government, which will streamline the entire industry in the process and lift the burden of heavy capital expenditure from the water players so that they can focus on the operations. However, this has yet to materialise.
The water sector in the state is by far the most fragmented in the country.
The main parties involved are the Federal Government, the state government and the water players with Puncak Niaga as the main company.- TheStar

Mustapa Regrets RM19 Million Has To Come From Federal Government Due AKSB's Failure

The failure of Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd (AKSB) to provide enough clean water supply in the state has forced the federal government to provide RM19 million this year to solve the problem, especially in the critical and rural areas.

Kelantan Development Action Council chairman Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the amount was channelled to the Kelantan Health Department.

He said the allocation should be for other development projects in the state, especially for building schools, but because of AKSB's failure it had to go to solving the clean water supply problem.

"This is only a temporary solution; the permanent solution should come from AKSB.

"We are unhappy about the problem and that the allocation cannot be used for other development purposes," he said after officiating at a dialogue session on health, here, Sunday.

Mustapa, who is International Trade and Industry Minister, said the council was listing again the critical areas in need of clean water supply according to priority.

In another development, Mustapa who is also Jeli Member of Parliament, said he was disappointed with the recent statement by Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat that Kelantan was free from any wrongdoings, including corruption.

Govt to defuse water-bond crisis

The Federal Government is looking to resolve any potential financial fallout posed by possible default in RM6.14bil worth of water-related bonds.
“The Government is hoping to settle all issues that are not just related to the water industry but also bondholders,'' Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin told StarBiz.
According to Chin, the Cabinet is studying a proposal for this overall solution which involves restructuring talks with the Selangor government. Details would be revealed later.

“The Prime Minister, who is also the Finance Minister, is looking at it closely,'' Chin added.
The Finance Ministry in consultation with the Prime Minister's Department and related agencies is looking at various structures that may be drawn up to assist the financial markets and bondholders, many of which are financial institutions such as the Employees Provident Fund, which have invested heavily in these bonds.
The situation worsened yesterday with downgrades on seven of these bonds by Malaysian Rating Corp (MARC) while RAM Ratings had, two weeks ago, maintained negative watch over three issues of about RM2bil from Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash), Destinasi Teguh and Sungai Harmoni.

In its downgrades of the seven bonds with the exception of Viable Chips (M) Sdn Bhd's bank-guaranteed (BG) BaIDS, MARC referred to their “increasingly challenged liquidity positions'' arising from the unresolved deadlock in talks between the Selangor and Federal governments as well as water concessionaires on the restructuring of water assets in the state.

Amid concerns of an increased likelihood of missed payments as the maturities approached and weakened credit profiles, MARC believed that Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd (PNSB) and Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd (PNHB) might “become more vulnerable to a possible declaration of an event-of-default due to minimum rating requirements imposed on the rated debt.''
This possible demand for repayment by bondholders will, in turn, increase the likelihood of cross-default and cross-acceleration, MARC said in a statement yesterday.

UiTM's Toilets To Use Rain Water In Future

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) will become the first university in the country to use treated rain water for toilets at its campuses.

For that purpose, UiTM will cooperate with the Drainage and Irrigation Department (JPS) through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the UiTM Puncak Alam campus here Wednesday.

UiTM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar said the MoU would allow UiTM and JPS to use their individual expertise to turn natural waste into a usable source.

"Among our focus is to use treated rain water in toilets at all UiTM campuses within two to three more years," he told a news conference after the MoU was inked.

Sahol said research on the use of rain water was being carried out at the UiTM Puncak Alam campus here, which has a student capacity of 30,000 people, before it was extended to other UiTM campuses.- BERNAMA

Experts: Water issue needs thrashing out

As the population in Kuala Lumpur grows, there will inevitably be higher demand for water and the increase in the number of people will also lead to more waste being generated.

The need for improved sustainability has been highlighted by IBM and Siemens in their study on Kuala Lumpur's sustainability. There is currently a water impasse between the Selangor government and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) . Syabas supplies water to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya. The Government will intervene so that consumers will not be burdened by water issues, says Commissioner of the National Water Services Commission (Span) Roger Tan. Span, approved by Parliament in June 2006, came into force on Feb 1, 2007, to promote efficient water services management.

There is a prediction that there will be a major water shortage issue by 2014, which will affect the people in the city. There is an urgent need to replace leaky pipes to resolve the issue of water wastage. – AFP

 

“Before 2005, the state government has authority over water issues. After some amendments to the law, the state government has juridiction only over raw water, which is untreated water while water companies focus on water treatment and supply,” Tan says.
The second issue is wastage. It was highlighted about a couple of weeks ago that Malaysians use an average of 226 litres of water per person daily, which is way above Singaporeans (154 litres) and the Thais (90 litres). Low tariff has led to high consumption.
The third issue is non revenue water caused by pipe leakages and tampered meters. About 20% of water supplied in Kuala Lumpur is lost either through the leaking pipes or tampered meters, Tan says.

Roger Tan says Span is working to solve various issues so consumers do not become victims.

There is also a prediction that there will be a major water shortage issue by 2014, which will affect the people in the city. There is an urgent need to replace the leaking pipes to resolve the issue of water wastage.
“We are working to solve these various issues so consumers do not become victims. At the same time, there is a need for them to conserve water,” he says.