Water operator to repay RM248.7mil from 2031

PENGURUSAN Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) is expected to start repaying a RM248.7mil loan from the state government starting from October 2031, a four-year extension from the original payment schedule.

“The loan repayment period is for 20 years, starting 10 years from when the first disbursement of funds was made to Air Selangor.

“There will be no interest charged for the loan,” said Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari at the State Assembly sitting in Shah Alam.

The loan to Air Selangor was to allow the water operator to replace old pipes in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

He was responding to a question by Harisson Hassan (PN-Jeram) on plans by the state to recover the loan to Air Selangor as revealed by National Audit Department in October 2023.

Amirudin said the state was committed to collecting pending debts in instalments, with the loan payment schedule starting in October 2031.

It is learnt that the company was originally scheduled to start repayment in October 2027.

“The first repayment will be RM7.175mil, followed by annual payments of RM12.435mil until 2046,” Amirudin said of the new arrangement.

On a related matter, Rafiq Mohd Abdullah (PN-Kuang) asked about short-term plans to address the issue of low water pressure affecting Lorong Beringin, Lorong Orkid, Lorong Melati, Lorong Jering and several areas in Kampung Cempedak in Gombak district.

“There are areas in my constituency where there is only water at night and this is due to the low water pressure,” he said.

State infrastructure and agriculture committee chairman Izham Hashim said the pipes connecting to the water source from Batu Arang to Kuang spanned a distance of 15km and were over 30 years old.

“The pipes are made of asbestos cement and are old.

“They can no longer support the required demand and they have outdated design.

“The pipes were also not properly installed as there was lack of proper planning in water infrastructure,” said Izham.

He said as part of short-term measures to alleviate the issue, Air Selangor planned to channel alternative water supply to Kuang from Sungai Selangor water treatment plant, starting in the first quarter of next year.

In the long term, he said Air Selangor planned to instal a new pipe alignment and build water ponds to solve the issue in Kuang, which would hopefully be implemented in 2027.