SHAH ALAM, Dec 21 — The need to review water tariffs will be pressing if almost all companies managing water supply are operating at a loss.

Selangor Infrastructure and Agriculture Committee chairman Izham Hashim said the current water tariff is still too low while the capital expenditure is quite high.

He said there was no review of water tariffs for more than 20 years.

"Water tariff has not been reviewed for more than 20 years. Electricity was quite frequent. Actually almost all water management companies are operating at a loss,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said during Question and Answer Session at Dewan Rakyat on November 9, that the state governments cross-party, agreed at the National Water Council meeting that water tariffs in the state should be reviewed and a new tariff setting mechanism established to regulate the rate of tariff increases by operating companies.

In the meantime, Izham said that so far the state government has implemented several initiatives to increase the profits of companies managing water, including the construction of new water treatment plants as well as the replacement of outdated pipes to reduce water leakage.

Izham also gave a commitment that the recipients of the Darul Ehsan Water Scheme (SADE) free water programme consisting of the state’s B40 group will not be affected following the expected increase in the new water tariff.

"SADE recipients will not be affected by this (increase in) tariff. Those involved are only commercial and domestic users who use more than 20 cubic metres of water,” he said.

He said to date, almost 400,000 Selangor citizens from the B40 group are qualified to register for the programme and those who wish to do so can go to https://ssipr.selangor.gov.my/ for more information.

SADE is a realignment programme to provide free water to the target group of Selangor residents with a household income of RM5,000 and aims to reduce the cost of living of the people, especially for the low-income group. — Bernama