GEORGE TOWN – The Penang government is ready to undertake more major water supply infrastructure replacement exercises like the one done in January to avoid long and sudden disruption in the future despite the risk of public criticism.
State Infrastructure, Transport and Digital exco Zairil Khir Johari told Scoop that the state government and Penang Water Supply Corp (PBAPP) are not only working on building new supply infrastructure but upgrading the existing ones.
He cited the replacement works on old pipes to reduce the release of non-revenue water, where RM151 million was spent specifically for these works, which are in progress.
Penang is also working on building a water pipe to channel treated water from the Sg Dua water treatment plant in Tasek Gelugor to Butterworth, upgrading riverbed pipes and building overhead pipe bridges.
On the overhead pipes, he argued that such infrastructure is necessary due to the difficulty in maintaining riverbed ones during rupture incidents.
“The Perai riverbed pipe leaked and caused a major disruption in Penang. (But) the problem is that it leaked underwater, so how to fix it?
“We have tried so many ways to fix it, but it was just very difficult. What we have decided is that we are going to replace the pipes running through the riverbed with new pipes overhead,” said Zairil in an interview with Scoop.
Penang underwent a four-day scheduled water supply interruption to replace ageing pipes and replace two water valves at the Sg Dua plant. The major exercise, despite its necessity, drew criticism from the public and businesses who said the interruption would disrupt their livelihood and businesses and called for its postponement.
Nevertheless, the state government and PBAPP pressed ahead with the exercise, which ran ahead of schedule, resulting in mainland districts having their supply recovered in a day or two, much to public satisfaction.
However, the exercise was hit with the second rupture of the Perai riverbed pipe in Butterworth, which led to PBAPP building an overhead pipe along the Ampang Jajar bridge to divert the treated water from the Sg Dua plant to the entire Butterworth area and Southwest district on the island.
Tariff hikes? It is up to SPAN, not Penang
Separately, Zairil said only the National Water Services Commission (SPAN), not the state government, has the authority to set higher water tariffs in Penang.
He added that PBAPP and other state water operators are simply required to submit the tariff adjustment applications every three years following SPAN’s procedures, where the commission set a formula on tariff hikes that would take into account an operator’s operational expenditures, capital expenditures and other expenses.
Higher tariffs will be suggested by operators when they incur higher operational and capital expenditures.
“But that does not necessarily mean the tariff review or tariff increase will be approved. In fact, for many years the state had submitted to increase the tariff but it wasn’t approved (by SPAN).
“Only last year did the federal government agree to approve the tariff increase for all states. So whether the tariff will increase again in Penang in the next few years, it’s not up to Penang, but SPAN, which is our water regulator,” he said, when asked whether Penang would consider more tariff hikes periodically following the new tariff, which was enforced on February 1 for domestic users.
The new rates are RM0.62 for the first 20 cubic metres or Band 1 (up 182% from RM0.22); RM1.17 for Band 2 above 20 cubic metres to 35 cubic metres (up 154% from RM0.46) and RM2.07 for Band 3 of more than 35 cubic metres. The rate for Band 1 was increased after 31 years.
Zairil, who is also Tg Bunga assemblyman, said any decision that the state government would undertake on tariff water would always prioritise the financial health of PBAPP and the level of public affordability for higher tariffs.
The state water company, he said, needs to remain profitable so that it has the capital needed to undertake more infrastructure projects to fortify the state’s water supply.
“But at the same time as a state, we are also aware that we don’t want to burden the people as much as possible. So even though we had a tariff increase recently we are still the second cheapest in Malaysia.
“We need to bear in mind the fact that we still kept it at a very low rate to ensure that Penangites are not burdened. But at the same time, we also have to ensure we have enough money to undertake all the infrastructure (works) required,” added Zairil. – August 1, 2024