Blackmailing

Water problems caused by poor planning and management of the water authority has now been turned into a political problem. What a joke.

Basic public utilities such as water and power supply, on the very first place, should not be privatized as they are basic of the basic necessities when reliable and uninterrupted supply to the people is the top priority rather than profit.

For a private company, the priority is different, the emphasis is maximum profit, big paychecks/ bonuses, tall corporate buildings, etc rather than proper system maintenance and continuous system upgrading.

One thing is for sure, the current water shortage is not due to the dry weather, even though a few months back some had attempted to blame it on the weather when the reservoir is full of water.

For the current water shortage, if it is due to system maintenance and operation problems, the operator must be sacked and be replaced. If the authority or Government tried to cover up the issue, they too need to be replaced.

If the current shortage is due to inadequate supply caused by inadequate infrastructure development, this can be confirmed when the newly completed housing area has adequate supply whereas the existing old residential area experiences interruption in supply.

The water supply operator is not supposed to divert water supply meant for the existing residential area to a newly completed area if the infrastructure is inadequate. The basic guideline for the approval of any new housing project is that new project should not be approved if the existing infrastructure is unable to support the new project. However, the new project still can be approved if new water supply infrastructure can be developed concurrently with the new project so that new source of water supply can be ready to meet the new demand. This requires good planning and good management.

So rightfully, with a good Government, there should not be any water shortage, especially in Malaysia when we have around 2.6 meters of rainfall a year and yet we have the statement.

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