July 23, 2012
Water in Selangor: A Crisis of Corruption
by Nathaniel Tan(07-21-12)@www.malaysiakini.com
Water, water, each where,
And all a fool around did shrink;
Water, water, each where,
Nor any dump to drink.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
COMMENT: Have we ever been done to buy something we didn't need? Or worse, have we been deceived, intimidated as well as bullied in to creation an wholly unnecessary, overpriced purchase?
It would appear which this is what we have been confronting with Syabas, this "water crisis" it keeps removing vehement about. However, if we inspect a hard contribution closely, we will see which a usually predicament we have been confronting is an all as well informed predicament of crime as well as cronyism centred firmly around a RM8.65 billion Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant.
Do we unequivocally need a Langat 2 plant?
We all know politicians have use of taxpayer-funded megaprojects to have money. The bigger a megaproject, a bigger a kickbacks as well as RM8.65 billion is copiousness big.
With which most income during stake, a last thing 'well-connected' people care about is whether a plan is essentially needed, or whether it in truth benefits a rakyat or not.
The Selangor supervision is all for preventing this RM8.65 billion gravy train from riding out, as well as a position is simple: there is copiousness of H2O in Selangor, as well as if there is any necessity during all, it is due to failure, or worse, disaster upon a part of Syabas.
Here's what Syabas doesn't wish we to know about this H2O "crisis": it's not about how most tender H2O there is (s! ince a d ams in Selangor have been all obviously full); it's about how Syabas is unwell dramatically to well modify enough of which tender H2O in to potable water.
(Technically speaking, a categorical association responsible for diagnosis of H2O is Puncak Niaga Bhd, which in spin owns 70 percent of Syabas. Both companies have been in essence run by a same people. For a role of this article, 'Syabas' refers to both Puncak Niaga as well as Syabas.)
Not all a tender H2O which goes in to a H2O diagnosis plant becomes potable H2O which is, H2O deemed fit to run in our taps during home. The technical tenure for a volume of tender H2O which is squandered due to inefficiencies in a H2O diagnosis plant is called "non-revenue water" or NRW.
32pct of H2O produced by Syabas is wasted
Syabas' turn of NRW is 32 percent. This means which a whopping one-third of a tender H2O which enters a Syabas H2O diagnosis plant goes wholly to waste.
Syabas contingency be congratulated here, for subsequent in wasting some-more H2O than Dhaka, Bangladesh, where a NRW is usually twenty-nine percent. Eastern Manila managed to bring down a NRW from 63 percent in 1997 to eleven percent in 2010.
More developed nations have even lower levels of NRW Germany's NRW is usually 7 percent, whilst a Netherlands as well as Denmark have completed NRW levels of 6 percent.
Perhaps this can be attributed to a actuality which they have been advanced, developed Western democracies? Oh, wait for for for a minute, Singapore's NRW is 5 percent.
It looks similar to under Syabas' brilliant management, ! we have managed to rubbish 6 times some-more H2O than our subsequent door neighbour to a south whom we similar to so most to have fun of. Thank you, Syabas!
There is also speak which Syabas is not given enough income to urge a services. However, a subject is, would we give some-more income to a association which demonstrates 0 capability to put which income to good use, as well as in actuality has squandered away all a income which has already been given to it?
Quite simply put, all we need to do to ensure a enough H2O supply for a Klang Valley is to drastically reduce a volume of NRW. For that, we don't need a RM8.65 billion H2O diagnosis plant, or to throw income during a complaint we only need cleaner, improved managers.
Is Syabas branch off a taps?
It's small wonder which Syabas has never had most incentive to urge a efficiency or peculiarity of a use for it does not have any competition. This simple actuality has rendered most an attention in Malaysia utterly defunct. Automobiles, airlines, telecommunications as well as energy generation have been all industries where cronies get rich, as well as Malaysians pay tall prices for crap quality.
A corner similar to Syabas is means to take this diversion a singular step further. When we have complete corner over a H2O industry, we don't have to wait for for for for an actual H2O predicament to transparent an RM8.65 billion white elephant mega project. Even in a surrounded by of complicated rain each singular day, all we need to do is spin off a taps, as well as voila "water crisis".
I consider we've all noticed a increasing frequency of H2O cuts in a Klang Valley recently. A simple subject remains: have been a taps tu! rned off since of a H2O shortage? Or since a small people wish we to consider there's a H2O shortage?
Is this all to transparent a RM8.65 billion H2O diagnosis plant which no a singular needs a plant which competence have a few propitious people intensely rich, whilst impoverishing a rest of a nation?
Is Syabas melancholy us?
One of a 'best' quotes we have review throughout this saga comes from Syabas Technical Services Executive Director V Subramaniam, maybe a minor guaranty sent onward to spew such brilliant statements as:
"The H2O predicament during present is a result of a shortfall in treated H2O for placement caused by a refusal of a state supervision to issue a development sequence for building a whole of a Langat 2 diagnosis plant."
Does Syabas take us for dummies?
According to this logic, if a Selangor supervision approves a building a whole of Langat 2 today (a plan which will take years to complete), afterwards a H2O predicament will vanish tomorrow.
Sounds a small suspicious? Perhaps Subramaniam's matter is technically correct, in which a state government's refusal has in truth precipitated a 'water shortage' solely which he is silent upon whether a pronounced H2O necessity is natural or made by unscrupulous people to grasp even some-more unscrupulous ends.
Who is politicising a H2O problem? There should be a law opposite this arrange of thing. Oh, wait. There is this thing called a Water Services Industry Act (WSIA), which was passed by a BN-dominated Parliament in 2006.
This law supposing for a de-privatisation of a H2O attention as well as a lapse to a particular state governments, for privatisation had obviously proven to be a disastrous disaster across a board.
The H2O industries of BN-led (for now) Malacca as well as Johor were successfully deprivatised following a gazetting of a WSIA. But what happened to Selangor post-2008?
Both sides similar t! o to cre dit each alternative of 'politicising' a H2O problem, but when a contribution show which a sovereign supervision had allowed deprivatisation in BN-held states whilst preventing it in Selangor, a truth becomes transparent to all.
Let's not dont consider about which Syabas is run by Rozali Ismail, a ready-to-run-for-Parliament Selangor UMNO treasurer who, notwithstanding formulating a spectacular disaster of Syabas as well as being indicted of using millions of Syabas' funds to buy pipes from his own association in Indonesia, is still paid a income of RM425,000 a month as CEO.
The Selangor supervision has plainly settled which it skeleton to slash a monthly income for this post by 90 percent. While Syabas is passed set upon exponential increases of up to 75 percent upon H2O tariffs, Selangor has affianced to top any tariff increases to 12 percent.
So, who is looking out for a rakyat, as well as who is looking out for themselves?
BN rapine prior to an inevitable defeat?
Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is a male most keen upon a de-privatisation of a Selangor H2O attention as well as a takeover of Syabas by a state government.
This is a male who increasing a cash reserves of a Selangor supervision five-fold from RM400 million in 2008 to RM2.1 billion in 2012.
Under UMNO as well as Najib Abdul Razak, a sovereign debt a debt our children as well as grandchildren will have to pay has given a year 2007 nearly doubled to RM421 billion this year.
Who do we consider is improved matched to run our H2O industry? Are we starting to allow people who have been bringing a republic to a edge of a real not made economic predicament to bully us in to balance a check for a RM8.65 billion megaproject which nobody nee! ds?
Are these tall jinks a latest try along with FGV, George Kent as well as a countless brand new spending initiatives a Prime Minister has not long ago voiced to drain a nation's coffers utterly dry for personal gain prior to finishing a full tenure in office in 2013?
It seems a BN has critical fears of losing power, as well as is trying to take out as most as it can prior to having to face an indignant electorate subsequent year. If a BN was confident of a victory, certainly a ubiquitous election would have been hold by now.In any case, a unscrupulous between us have been welcome to fool around their games.
Turning off a taps as well as replacing a upsurge of H2O with a upsurge of painfully fallacious arguments is reduction expected to vigour a state supervision to forsake a interests of a rakyat, as well as some-more expected to indicate a finger behind during those in truth responsible for scaremongering as well as rapist mismanagement.
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