Compensate businesses hit by water cuts, urges MEF

PETALING JAYA: Businesses affected by frequent water cuts in the Klang Valley should be compensated by the authorities, says the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).

Its president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said a compensation mechanism should be introduced by Air Selangor and the authorities to address the issue.

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“The frequent water disruptions in the Klang Valley has led to businesses suffering huge losses.

“The authorities and Air Selangor should come up with a mechanism to compensate businesses for this,” he said.

Syed Hussain said that there was no data compiled on losses suffered by businesses due to the unscheduled water cuts in July.

“During the disruptions, Air Selangor provided alternative assistance with the use of water tankers.

“Even though Air Selangor made efforts to minimise the impact of disruptions on businesses, they were not fully able to resolve the challenges caused by water disruptions,” he said, referring to the water cuts caused by odour pollution in Kuang in Gombak, Selangor.

He cited a research paper, which found that small and medium-scale enterprises (SME) there suffered losses of over RM2.053bil in 2020.

The paper revealed that 46% of 117 SMEs involved in the survey were affected by water supply disruptions.

Researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, University of Technology Sydney and Universiti Malaya found that SMEs under the services category showed maximum loss, followed by manufacturing and construction.

The outcome showed that the supply disruption had a huge impact on SMEs due to business interruptions, with production decline, costs increases, water purchases and decline in sales, besides relocation and transportation costs.

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The researchers proposed that pollution control laws be strengthened to prevent water contamination and frequent outages.

In March, the amendment to the Environmental Quality Act was passed in the Dewan Rakyat, which saw the enhancement of penalties with a minimum fine range of not less than RM5,000, maximum fine not exceeding RM10mil and mandatory jail not exceeding five years.

SME Association of Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing said many of his members prepared for the worst during water supply disruptions.

He said during the water cuts in Selangor due to odour pollution in July, most of the association’s members in the Klang Valley were not as affected as they were in 2020.

“This was because most of them made preparations, learning from previous experiences.

“The worst incident was in 2020 where there was no water supply for about a week,” he recalled.

Ding proposed that the government provide financial support to SMEs involved in handling wastes.

He said these operators should also be educated on the proper way of disposing of the waste, with investments made to upgrade waste management by factories.

“The cost of upgrading a waste management system can be more than RM250,000.

“Due to the high cost, some SMEs decided to dispose their waste illegally into water sources which caused supply problems.

“The government should introduce financial assistance or loan incentives to encourage these businesses upgrade their waste water management systems,” he added.