Penang govt urged to take over state’s water body, appoint experts

GEORGE TOWN: Penang MCA has called on the state government to take over the running of the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) and appoint experts to deal with the water situation in Penang.

State MCA publicity bureau chief Tan Eng Hin said the Penang government should take over the management and monitor all maintenance work until the restructuring of PBAPP is completed.

He said while they (Penang MCA) understand that maintenance work from time to time is unavoidable, the state government must ensure that it has comprehensive knowledge before implementing it.

“I would like to remind Chow Kon Yeow that as the Chief Minister, the interests of the people must always be given highest priority.

“There are concerns that a similar water disruption that happened last month (Dec 20) could recur.

“It was an unscheduled water disruption and while water was to be restored in a day it did drag on,” he said during a press conference held at the Wisma MCA office in Transfer Road on Monday (Jan 8).

Almost 600,000 consumers will be affected by the scheduled water cut from Jan 10-14.

The supply disruption is meant to allow for valve replacement work at the Sungai Dua water treatment plant and repair work at several locations along the main pipeline.

Chow had said the work to replace the two major pipes was challenging and hoped the public would understand the long-term need to do so.

Tan said that PBAPP should only carry out works after they have a thorough understanding of the situation involved.

“Even though PBAPP is taking steps to mobilise water tankers to distribute water to users in need, would it be enough to meet their basic daily needs based on actual usage statistics?

“Penang MCA is of the view that the move made by the state government to ask people to store water for their own use for an uncertain period of time is unreasonable.

“The state government, not the people, should take full responsibility for all the negative consequences caused by this disruption,” he said.

Tan then questioned the cost of the repair work.

“Did this valve replacement project go through the usual tender process and what are the costs involved?

“We call on the state government to present the facts,” he said.

Meanwhile at Penang Caring Dialysis Society located on the ground floor of Wisma MCA, they will resort to using single use dialysers for their 13 patients.

Its honorary secretary Lim Kim Chuan said each patient needs dialysis three times a week.

“While the single use one will be costlier for us we do not want to risk it as the reusable one requires quite a bit of water to clean before it is reused.

“Even during the dialysis session, each session (for one patient) requires the use of 300 litres of water, with each session lasting four hours.

“We plan on having our session as early as 3am on Jan 10, to start before the water cut begins at 6am.

“We usually have two shifts a day and will manage. While we were told that water should be supplied to us, I have heard that it has not been finalised,” he said.

Lim said they do have two water tanks that can store 2,750 litres of water each.

“We have always had these tanks,” he said.