Water is the main vitality to all known forms in life and it holds an important role in the world economy as it acts as a solvent to all kinds of chemical substances and facilities industrial cooling and transportation.
However, what would have happen had this renewable source runs out one day?
Water scarcity is taken into consideration by the state of Selangor and the government is working through this issue to prepare for the worst.
However, there were complications in making decisions to build a dam, or to launch suggestions like technique of rainwater harvesting owing to the fact that there is disintegration in the communication among the authorities.
There are four private companies in Selangor, three of which handles the treatment aspects of water such as Abbas, Splash, Puncak Niaga, and Syabas which operates the distribution aspect.
The Research Officer to Selangor Chief Minister, Tricia Yeoh explained that the whole structure of organisation to water resources is fragmented in the sense that there were too many ties in between the state government and federal government due to the corporatizing, privatizing, and concessions given away to private companies.
The privatisation of the water supply is supposed to generate a better result in efficiency which is why the government focus more on policy instead of implementation, but Syabas proved it wrong. It turned out that Syabas had liabilities and insufficient capital expenditure for repairing the water pipelines and assets which resulted in another concession given to other companies.
The federal government decided that all this must be put to a stop, hence came up with a decision to unveil an act called ‘The Water Services Industry Act’ which came into force on 1 January 2008.
The Act is formed to protect the public to resolve the fragmented structure of the water services industry.
Yeoh added, “They would be able to exercise control over the concession companies, although right now they are claiming that ‘they cannot, because they are tied down to the concession agreements’. To our mind, the Act is anywhere more powerful than the concession agreements, and was drafted with the very purpose of ensuring these unfair concession agreements could be ended in a legal, legitimate manner”.
Currently, the treatment and distribution of water is ‘shared’ by both the federal and state government after the Federal Constitution was amended such that “water services” was transferred from the State List to the Concurrent List.
“But, as we all know, in this country, when you say ‘share’ it is obvious the dominance comes from the federal government”, said Yeoh.
Whether or not, the power comes from the state government or federal, it should not be a matter of who gets to dominate what instead, they should abide by the quote constantly used by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for 1Malaysia – People first. Performance now.
For everything they do, make it a point for the public, no?
Littlewarmwhispers's Blog 