Suhaimi says collaboration is of utmost importance in ensuring the safety of water from source to tap.
Air Selangor’s 2021 report highlights its commitment to collaboration with industry for safe process
PENGURUSAN Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) has launched its 2021 Sustainability Report, themed “Nurturing Sustainable Water Ecosystems”.
The report focuses on the water services provider’s efforts and strategies in driving sustainable and efficient supply management and administration for more than 8.4 million consumers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
“This reflects the magnitude of our operations to ensure continuous, sustainable, clean and safe treated water supply to all consumers,” said Air Selangor chief executive officer Suhaimi Kamaralzaman during the launch event at in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur.
“The theme is very apt in showcasing our commitment as an organisation to act as the catalyst to collaborate with other industry players in nurturing a sustainable water ecosystem.
“Collaboration is of utmost importance in ensuring the safety of our water from source to tap,” he said.
He highlighted the importance of recapturing Air Selangor’s roles and responsibilities in order to understand the process involved in delivering clean and safe treated water to consumers.
“In short, we extract raw water from the point of intake, treat the raw water at our plants and last but not least, deliver treated water to our consumers.
“Throughout the entire value chain, we are not alone,” he elaborated.
For example, said Suhaimi, “Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) monitors raw water sources at rivers and ponds, Health Ministry controls the standard of water we produce, the Environment Depart-ment regulates the effluent discharged by factories and treatment plants, and Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) regulates the entire water ecosystem, just to name a few.”
Revealing the breakdown in customer accounts in 2021, he said, “We are definitely seeing an uptrend across the board year-on-year for three consecutive years.
“Domestic customers made up the biggest portion at about 87%, commercial customers stood at around 12% and others at 0.5%.”
He said Air Selangor recorded a higher number of pipe leak cases in 2021 compared to 2020, with 135,413 cases and 124,614 cases respectively.
However, he added, the number of pipe burst cases were lower in 2021 at 1,910 cases, bringing their Pipe Burst Index (PBI) to 6.37. In 2020, it was 8.
PBI is a measurement of the frequency of a burst pipe per 100km, and the global standard is about 13 (per 100km), Suhaimi explained.
In 2021, he said Air Selangor achieved 99.8% compliance with the Health Ministry’s Drinking Water Quality Standard.
“We also conducted more pipe cleaning works in 2021 with a total of 9,027 compared to 8,853 in 2020.
“In 2021, we received 1,370 valid water quality complaints, the lowest to date, representing about 0.21% of total complaints reported to Air Selangor,” he added.
In her sharing of Air Selangor’s key achievements in 2021, Air Selangor risk management department’s sustainability and water conservation head Amanda Lee said the company placed high priority on operating responsibly towards reducing environmental impact.
“As part of our efforts to reduce environmental impact, we have implemented energy-efficient measures with cost savings of RM18mil.
“We are also exploring the potential of renewable energy solutions throughout our operations,” she said.
Lee added that Air Selangor also reduced treated water loss through its Non-Revenue Water (NRW) programme, equivalent to 192.5 million litres of water saved daily, which also resulted in lower raw water withdrawals and fewer resources wasted.
