Increase in water rates in Selangor, KL and Putra Jaya

The Star 31/10/2006 By DHARMENDER SINGH

SHAH ALAM: Consumers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will pay more for their water starting Wednesday as the new water tariff comes into effect.

Speaking during a press conference to announce the implementation of the new charges, Selangor Infrastructure and Public Utilities Committee chairman Datuk Fatah Iskandar Fatah said under the new tariff there would be no increase for the first 20 cubic metres used and consumers would continue to pay 57 sen per cubic metre.

“But consumers will pay 13% more for every cubic metre used between 20 and 35 cubic metres and 17.6% more for every cubic metre after 35 cubic metres used monthly,” he said.

Some 45% of consumers would not be affected as their water consumption was below 20 cubic metres per month.

He said commercial users will now pay 15% more for usage of below 35 cubic metres of water a month and 18.8% more for use of every cubic metre of water above 35 cubic metres of usage.

Fatah said a survey was conducted before the increase was approved and it was found that the hike would not have a huge impact on domestic or commercial users.

“People also do not have to worry about massive hikes in the prices of food and drinks at coffee shops because according to the survey these outlets will only face minor increases in their monthly bills."

He said the hike would only increase costs by 2.7% to 4.6% for medium-sized coffee shops, which meant that they would only pay between RM4.50 and RM7.50 more a day, for their water usage.

He said small-scale laundry outlets will experience an increase of between RM40 and RM55 per month while hair salons would have to pay about RM3 more per day.

Fatah said the government also saw the hike as a way to get consumers to conserve water as they would not have to pay more if they keep their usage below 20 cubic metres per month.

He said the hike was also necessary to finance works by Syabas like the upgrading of raw water treatment by switching to the latest technology so that it could provide treated water that was of higher standard than that set by the Health Ministry.

He said Syabas had also launched a programme to carry out cleaning of all 800 reservoirs under its jurisdiction and it will also carry out the scouring of pipes more regularly and thoroughly.

He said the company had also replaced 300km of 800km of old and faulty pipes, many of which were over 30 years old.

“Syabas will be spending about RM10.7bil to carry out various projects that are aimed at raising the quality of water that is supplied to Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya,” he said.

Syabas will spend RM4.8bil to develop and upgrade the water distribution system, RM2.1bil for asset management and replacement, RM2.7bil to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) and RM1.1bil for land matters including costs of acquiring land to lay new pipes.

According to the concession, Syabas was eligible to seek an increase in tariff from January this year but the federal government approval for the tariff hike did not allow for bills to be backdated, so the state government is expected to compensate the company.

Syabas will be eligible to seek another increase in 2009