PETALING JAYA: Water tariffs should be increased and the revenue should be used to maintain the ageing water infrastructure and facilities, said an expert.
Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia president Saravanan Thambirajah said the current tariffs are too low.
“The current tariff is not even enough to cover the operating expenses of the water operators. Our water tariff hasn’t been revised for a few decades,” he said, while also proposing that a safety net be provided for poor households to ensure they will be protected from the increased tariff.
“The water tariff must be raised and it must be justified with promises that the water operators will be able to supply clean water all the time,” he said, adding that frequent water disruptions have always been a problem.
Saravanan said the funds collected from the increased tariff should go to water distribution network expansion and the replacement of aged infrastructure.
Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER) president S. Piarapakaran said before water supply facilities are stopped for repairs or upgrades, the federal and state governments must ensure that the reserve margins of treated water are beefed up.
“Reserve margin is additional distributable treated water capacity available after meeting the demand. This will ensure services are not totally disrupted due to maintenance or repairs,” he said.
On whether poor infrastructure maintenance, such as on dams and reservoirs, leads to water security problems, he said each facility has its own manual.
“Just like when we buy a car, we need to maintain it so that the vehicle is always in optimal condition. It is imperative that owners and operators carry out this basic maintenance to ensure water security, which is a component of national security, is not breached,” he said.
“There are ample technologies available to map the holding capacity of our reservoirs to determine the actual available capacity.
“If federal and state governments are operating based on (reservoir) design capacity that was done 50 years ago, we are having serious problems as actual raw water availability is compromised with dead storage that consists of silt (at the bottom of the reservoir).”
In the latest report from the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) that lists seven reservoirs as being at high risk, he said there is a need to urgently investigate the root cause of this issue as failure to solve it will cause severe raw water security issues for Malaysia.
