Expect more water supply disruptions: Awer president

PETALING JAYA: The frequent disruption of water supply in the Klang Valley will continue to occur due to the low reserve margins for treated water, said Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (Awer) president S. Piarapakaran.
Having foreseen and highlighted the issue since 2010, Piarapakaran said currently the reserve margin for treated water in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is less than 5%.
"It is getting lesser and lesser as the years go by and when any emergency occurs such as burst pipes, and the dry season among others, it would only worsen the situation and put consumers at risk," he told theSun when contacted, today.
With a population of 7.2 million people in the Klang Valley, Piarapakaran said the area has the highest water consumption rate in the country with 6,000 million litres per day (mld).
"Due to the low reserve margins, there is not enough treated water in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. The treatment plants are either operating at maximum level or overloading which also puts it at risk for disruption.
"The ideal reserve margin levels for treated water supply should be at 20% or if possible the operational reserve margin should be at 10%. That would ensure that any emergencies would either result in zero disruption or partial disruption to the water supply system," he said.
As a first step, he stressed that the authorities must act to contain the scenario by reducing the non-revenue water (NRW) which is currently at 30%.
"At present the current water supply is seriously affected by NRW which comprises 30% of the total amount of treated water supplied to the Klang Valley.
"The authorities needs to fix or replace the old pipes that causes the leakages. However this would also result in temporary disruptions which will be unpopular to the consumers," he said.
Piarapakaran said even with the completion of the Langat 2 water treatment plant in 2019, it remains uncertain if the water reserve margin would increase.
"While the new plant would be able to produce 1,130 million litres per day (mld) and is sorely needed to alleviate the water problem in the Klang Valley, if the treated water flows through a leaking system, the NRW would increase.
"It must be noted that with Langat 2, the demand and usage of water would increase leaving little room for an increase water reserve margin," he added.
According to a report, last year, the country has an average NRW of 35.5%, which means for every one litre of treated water produced, 0.355 litre is lost.
His comments follows a major water disruption in the Klang Valley which has affected some 280 areas due to a burst pipe in Sungai Buloh.
Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), in a statement, said it would take at least three days to restore water supply upon completion of the repair works.