Selangor targets higher water reserve margin

River revival: With the introduction of The Ocean Interceptor in Sungai Klang, some 77,389 metric tonnes of floating debris was removed from the waterway between 2016 and 2021. — KK SHAM/The Star

THE Selangor government hopes to improve the water reserve margin in the state from 10% to between 15% and 20% after the Sungai Rasau water treatment plant begins operations.

“Construction of the plant has started and we hope to commission it by 2025,” said state infrastructure and public amenities, agriculture modernisation and agro-based industry committee chairman Izham Hashim.

He said the Sungai Rasau plant would not only supply treated water to Klang district but also improve water supply statewide.

“We need to increase the reserve margin so that treated water supply can be redirected if there is a problem with one plant.

“We don’t want to have one water treatment plant to serve only certain areas, as there will be no water supply should anything happen to that plant.”

The Sungai Rasau plant will have a water production capacity of 700 MLD (millions of litres per day) during its first phase and 700 MLD for the second phase later on, with expected total water production capacity of 1,400 MLD when in full operation.

“This water treatment plant will use Sungai Klang as its water source.

“The water quality in Sungai Klang used to be categorised as Class 5 (toxic), but that has improved to Class 3 for 48% of days in the year after cleaning and rehabilitation initiatives,” said Izham, who is Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd (LLSB) chairman.

“While water sent to the water treatment plant will still require treatment such as ozonisation, we still need to ensure the river water quality is better to reduce the amount of treatment required for raw water.”

LLSB was appointed by the Selangor government as master developer to implement key activities in the cleaning, rehabilitation and rejuvenation of Sungai Klang under the Selangor Maritime Gateway project.

The key clean-up initiatives include placing seven log booms along 56km of Sungai Klang, from Mid Valley Megamall to the river mouth at Port Klang, as well as the use of two Interceptors by The Ocean Cleanup (TOC).

The Interceptor, a watercraft built by Dutch non-profit organisation TOC, uses a barrier and conveyor belt system that concentrates and extracts plastics from rivers.

TOC founder and chief executive officer Boyan Slat was in Taman Awam Pangkalan Batu in Klang to check on the progress of the two machines placed along Sungai Klang – with Interceptor 002 in use since 2019 and Interceptor 005 since October 2021.

According to Izham, 77,389 metric tonnes of floating debris was removed from Sungai Klang between 2016 and 2021.

The amount of waste collected has been reduced from 1,500 metric tonnes per month in 2016 to 850 metric tonnes per month now.

Also present during the visit were #SayNo2Plastic in Malaysia campaign founder and Selangor princess Tengku Zatashah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah and LLSB managing director Syaiful Azmen Nordin.