KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) is willing to buy treated water from the Selangor government because of the water situation.

“We are screaming ‘We need water!’” Syabas corporate affairs executive director Abdul Halem Mat Som told The Malay Mail at his office yesterday.

“To increase water supply, we need more treatment plants.”

Asked if he was referring to the controversial Langat 2 treatment plant, Halem said that was the preferred choice but not the only option.

“If the state government can build a treatment plant and supply us treated water, we would buy it on condition that treated water was above a certain grade,” he said.

Halem said it had been reported that if more water sources were not found in the next five years, the people in the Klang Valley would face even tougher times.

This was because studies by Syabas showed the population was increasing at 3 per cent a year while the water supply remained unchanged.

He said 700 development projects had been put on hold because of the water shortage because if Syabas were to supply them with water, other areas would have to go without it.

Using an analogy, he pointed out that if Syabas was selling bottled water and the supplier only gave them 10 bottles a day, there would be no trouble so long as their consumption was limited to just 10 bottles a day.

However, if the demand rose while supply did not change or, at worse, decreased, a shortage would occur.

On the intermittent water cuts taking place now, Halem said this was because their water supply was kais pagi makan pagi (barely enough water to satisfy immediate needs).

“The margin of our reserve capacity is too small at only one per cent,” he said.

Asked if reducing the Non-Revenue Water (NRW) would solve the water crisis, he said when Syabas took over five years ago, the NRW was at 42 per cent but that had since been reduced to 32 per cent.

“This is a great achievement as it was done without disruption.” he said.