Call to set up federal agency to solve water pollution crises
Advertisement
THE idea of a federal water protection agency is being floated to deal with river pollution blamed for hospitalising residents in Johor and causing water cuts in Selangor.
National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman Charles Santiago said such a body will be able to unify all aspects of river management.
These include monitoring quality, preventing pollution and deciding what businesses and industries can be close to rivers.
Currently, 17 agencies divided between federal and state governments oversee such functions.
A national agency under the Prime Minister’s Department will unify all these functions under one roof and give it the power to act, said Santiago.
“We have an enforcement problem because we have all these separate agencies but who is going to take overall ownership?” Santiago said after opening a national river pollution seminar in Petaling Jaya today.
“Each agency points fingers at each other when something happens. So we are now floating this idea of a national agency. We have to discuss whether this is the solution or whether it will replicate the problems we have now.”
The idea is being discussed at the seminar today by water experts, utility companies, government agencies and civil society organisations.
Water quality and pollution, Santiago said, is a 30-year old problem repeatedly discussed but without a solution.
In June, more than seven million Chennai residents were left with dry taps after the south Indian city depleted all its four reservoirs.
Over the last two months, about 6,000 residents had been hospitalised in Pasir Gudang, Johor, after inhaling toxic fumes from nearby Sg Kim Kim.
Selangor suffered two state-wide water cuts in the space of a week when treatment plants were shut down due to pollution in their raw water sources.
In Perak, about 1,000 residents of Sg Gandah have been drinking water tainted with arsenic, a poison used in mining operations. The Sg Gandah treatment plant supplying the tainted water was finally shut down in April.
“We can’t play around any more when it comes to water source management. We are already facing severe water shortages and there will come a time when we could face a situation like Cape Town because 98% of sources come from river.”
In that South African city, residents were forced to restrict water usage after major dams supplying water fell below 13.5%.
“We will have to sit and hash out a solution and when there is one I will bring it the minister to craft the necessary legislation. Because if we can’t protect our rivers, we can’t protect society”. – August 14, 2019.