PETALING JAYA, Oct 5: The Sungai Semenyih and Bukit Tampoi water treatment plants are not fully operational yet after the river was found to be polluted yesterday.
Air Selangor corporate communications head Elina Baseri said that as of 7.30am today, pollution was still being detected with a reading of five threshold odour number (TON) near the Bukit Tampoi plant and seven TON near the Sungai Semenyih plant.
She said Air Selangor could not yet tell when the water supply will be fully restored.
“In the past 14 hours, Air Selangor has not been able to produce the daily 602 million litres of water needed to supply users in the 274 affected areas.
“Air Selangor advises users to get water supply aid from public taps as water tankers will be prioritised for critical premises such as hospitals and dialysis centres,” she said in a statement.
More than 300,000 consumers in Selangor are without water for the second time in a month, after pollution detected in Sungai Gong caused unscheduled water cuts for several days in early September.
Air Selangor said the Sungai Semenyih and Bukit Tampoi water treatment plants had to completely stop operations yesterday afternoon following pollution detected in Sungai Semenyih, the raw water source for these plants.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari later said the source of the pollution was detected 30km away from the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant in Sungai Batang Benar, Negeri Sembilan.
The suspension of the two treatment plants has affected 273 areas and 309,605 consumers in the Petaling, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang districts.
Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said odour pollution was suspected to have originated from the Nilai Industrial Estate in Negeri Sembilan.