pic credit: langat2.com

THE volume of treated water reserve margin for six states were recorded at an alarming level of below 15%, Deputy Environment and Water Minister Senator Datuk Dr Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad said.

Ahmad Masrizal told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that two out of the six states have a negative margin, recorded as of the second quarter of this year (2Q20).

He said the states are Johor (11.3%), Sabah (8.3%), Perlis (7.1%), Selangor (1.5%), Kelantan (-0.2%) and Kedah (-2.3%).

“Among the approaches that have been implemented to increase the rate of treated water reserves for these states are the construction of new water treatment plants and upgrading the existing plants so that the production capacity can be increased.

“We also implemented the non-revenue water programme involving the replacement of obsolete pipes and the repair of damaged and leaking service tanks,” he said.

He was responding to a query by Datuk Ahmad Nazlan Idris (Barisan Nasional-Jerantut) on the government’s initiatives to overcome the issue of low treated water reserve margins and the long-term plan to increase water resources.

Ahmad Masrizal said a total of seven water treatment plants are being constructed in Selangor, Kelantan and Kedah to increase the reserve margin levels for the states.

He said the development of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant (LRA) in Selangor is not completed yet.

“Its Phase 1 is expected to finish in 2023 and is slated to increase Selangor’s margin reserves by 10%. The Kampung Teluk plant in Kelantan, which will have a capacity of 30 million litres per day (MLD), is expected to be completed next year and increase Kelantan’s reserves by 4%,” he said.

He added that five plants in Kedah are in the process of appointing contractors and will be completed in 2023, and the success of the project would increase the state’s margin to 2%.

Ahmad Masrizal said Malaysia’s treated water reserve margin was recorded at 11.5% or 1,943 MLD in 2Q20.

He said through the National Water Services Commission, the government has set the key performance indicator for Malaysia’s margin reserves at 10% to 15%.

“Most water treatment plants in Malaysia use river water, or surface water, as the main raw water source.

“In line with climate change, the government has set a new policy for water exploration to increase the raw water resources through the off-river storage project known as TAPS, barrage and the horizontal collector well,” he said.