Pig farmer nabbed for siphoning RM77,000 worth of treated water

KUALA LANGAT: A pig farm which has been operating for the past 16 years here was raided by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) today for installing illegal piping to siphon treated water, which resulted in the company losing about RM77,000.

Syabas Project and Non-Revenue Water executive director Yusuf Badawi said the illegal activity carried out by the farm owner was detected one year after Syabas became suspicious of the water meter reading.

"Further investigations showed the farm owner made an illegal 20-millimetre pipe connection at a main pipe, 200 metres away from the farm. The illegal activity caused 33,300 cubic metres of treated water to be stolen by the farm owner, and he even uses a pump to boost channelling water to the farm," he told reporters here today.

In this regard, Syabas cut off the illegal water connection immediately and the farm owner had his statement taken for further action.
In another development, Yusuf said from January to Feb 25, about 1.7 million cubic metres of water were found to have been illegally consumed after 148 complaints on water thefts were discovered in Selangor.

He said in the two months, Syabas suffered RM3.9 million in losses from such illegal activities.

"Last year, we investigated 4,551 cases and 512 were found illegally siphoning 6.5 million cubic metres of water. From these cases, Syabas has demanded RM14 million from the individuals involved," he said.

He said Syabas would be conducting more operations to stem out water theft and called on consumers to report such activities to Syabas or the authorities. – Bernama