Substantial sum of money allocated by Selangor govt to overcome water woes

SHAH ALAM: The state government has allocated a substantial sum of money under its Budget 2017 to overcome its long standing water woes.
While tabling the Budget, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali pledged to reduce non-revenue water from the current 35% to 29% by 2019.
"To achieve this, the state government will allocate RM324 million to address the issues of burst pipes and to replace old pipes running some 422.5km in 84 hot spots for three years starting 2016," Azmin told the state assembly yesterday.
Additionally, another RM100.6 million will also be allocated to Air Selangor for pipe replacement works.
He said this is part of efforts to provide holistic water services to Selangor residents while the water restructuring exercise is being finalised.
Azmin said the state government will also allocate RM197 million to build the Semenyih II and Labohan Dagang water treatment plants, which will cost the state government an estimated RM800 million in total.
The two water treatment plants were meant to be stop gap measures to address the seven year delay of the Langat II water treatment plant held up by some water concessionaires who refused the buyout price offered.
The two treatment plants are expected to be completed by the 2019.
Azmin said RM17 million will also be allocated to manage Selangor's water resources better through several measures.
These include cloud seeding operations, pumping water out of Bestari Jaya's former mining pools, to increase surveillance of water sources by the Selangor Water Management Board (Luas) through the use of information technology and drones.