SHAH ALAM: SELANGOR will look into various contingency plans to ensure an adequate treated water reserve margin for Klang Valley users.
State infrastructure and agriculture committee chairman Izham Hashim said the collapse of the embankment at the construction site for raw water intake structure of the Rasau Water Supply Scheme (Phase 1) on Saturday (Sept 7) had delayed the project by a year.
"We are concerned that the delay will lead to us not meeting the estimated consumption of 350 million litres per day (MLD) next year.
"We will explore contingency plans. Perhaps we can build the Sungai Rasau scheme at the Labohan Dagang WTP as the site is ready for the project.
"Air Selangor will provide a suggestion on how we are going to address the matter," he told reporters during a press conference at the launch of the Jetpatcher, a spray injection road repair vehicle at Shah Alam on Tuesday (Sept 10).
The Rasau Water Supply Scheme is a mega water treatment plant project aimed at diversifying water sources to secure a reliable water supply in the future.
Last Saturday, water from the surrounding lake breached the embankment that serves as a cofferdam to keep the construction site dry.
This is so that construction work can take place to build the water intake structure, which is capable of drawing up to 1,400 million litres per day (MLD) of raw water from the ex-mining ponds at Taman Putra Permai.
Gamuda Bhd is the main contractor for this water supply scheme owned by Air Selangor.
With the implementation of the Sungai Rasau Scheme, the treated water reserve margin is expected to increase to more than 20% to provide a better buffer for consumers.
Izham said the collapse would not affect users directly.
"However, we are worried that if the project is not delivered on time, it creates a lower water reserve margin.
"If other WTPs experience disruptions and the water reserve margin is too low, Klang Valley users might face water shortages," he said.
Izham added that the investigation into the collapse is currently ongoing.
"The investigation will take three months, while repairs and upgrades will take about seven months to complete," he said.
