The strange obstinacy of Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim towards solving the water crisis in his state has reached tragi-comic proportions. Instead of supporting the federal Government’s efforts at getting the Langat 2 water treatment plant off the ground as quickly as possible, Khalid is adamant that an obscure membrane technology will somehow solve the water crisis in his state.
His demand seems even more inexplicable as any further delay in beginning work on Langat 2 will ensure that there will be a water crisis after 2015.
Yet the PKR-led state government has been dragging its feet over the issue, and its last-ditch proposal to use membrane technology is the latest example of its stalling tactics.
So we have the strange spectacle of a Menteri Besar suggesting an alternative proposed by a Canadian company that reportedly utilises membrane technology to extract fresh water from existing plants and turn them into water for household use. Really?
Khalid wants us to believe that this technology would be viable and cheaper than a proper water treatment plant.
He claimed that the Canadian company proposed taking water from several treatment plants and treating them separately to produce one billion litres of water daily, instead of producing this from one main plant.
“But you have several plants so you can add 50 litres a day and three million more from elsewhere and you add that all, you get one billion litres a day,” Khalid recently told The Malaysian Insider.
This is technical gibberish, and does not sound like a serious option for the country’s richest state. Yet Khalid seems to actually believe the Canadian company’s marketing pitch.
“In short, we will have cheaper water resources at very, very low prices,” the Menteri Besar claimed, trying to convince the people of Selangor that he is thinking of their best interests. However, he failed to name the Canadian company, so no one can independently verify his claim.
“The total cost will be in the vicinity of RM500 million to RM750 million compared to the RM3 billion to RM5 billion to build Langat 2,” Khalid announced, claiming that through this new method the state Government would not have to raise tariffs to produce treated water.
So instead of fast-tracking the construction of a new treatment plant to alleviate the water shortage expected in his state, Khalid is busy trying to find alternative solutions to save his own political skin, however obscure these may be.
Sadly for Khalid, his pitch for membrane technology was promptly dismissed as impractical.
“I have consulted engineering experts from Kettha (Energy, Water and Green Technology Ministry),” said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“The technology improves water quality but it does not increase water supply. But the quality of our raw water is already good and recognised by international bodies,” he said, adding that it was membrane technology costly to implement.
“The cost of implementing the technology is about RM95 million per treatment plant, and if it is used on all 34 plants it would be around RM3 billion. This is not the solution,” said Muhyiddin.
The only solution is to have a larger water supply, i.e., a water treatment plant to provide the larger quantity of water needed.
With water demand growing at 3.5 per cent a year, that is the solution that the federal government is trying to implement, but the Selangor government keeps trying to stall the process to score political brownie points.
The federal Government, meanwhile, has offered to work with the Selangor government in resolving the water crisis. Putrajaya has therefore moved swiftly to get the Langat 2 water treatment plant off the ground. The tender for the project construction will be awarded by November, so that the plant can address the expected increase in water consumption by households and industries in the Klang Valley.
Langat 2, which is part of the RM8.9 billion Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer project, would be able to bring in 1.1 billion litres a day for residents in Selangor and the two federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
That is what the state needs, not a half-baked alternative suggested by an unnamed Canadian company.
Just how much Khalid’s political machinations risk hurting the residents of Selangor was made clear when it was revealed that Langat 2 is already 589 working days behind schedule.
Even if the project starts next year, as the federal Government is pushing to do, the completion date would be 2016 or 2017, two years behind schedule.
The time has come for Khalid to drop his impractical idea and support a tried and tested solution that is guaranteed to increase the water supply for his people.