For the Klang Valley people, the past nine days have been a bit of a roller coaster.
Just before Merdeka Day, there was a text from Jenny with an urgent warning: “Diesel oil spilt into Selangor river. Immediate rationing. Stock up on water. Pass this message to your friends and relatives immediately”.
The text/whatsapp message went viral and the effects were almost instantaneous.
The shelves of convenience shops in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Bangsar, and many other affluent neighbourhoods were stripped of bottled water.
A few days later, there was another social media update. It warned of an increase in petrol and diesel prices. This time, Kota Kinabalu folk were the first to start the service station queues, reportedly from 3 pm.
Apart from the reminder of social media power, the water and petrol events prompted the citizenry to review, analyse and comment.
Let’s start with the water pollution. You can see the Sungei Selangor if you drive the rural road to Kuala Kubu Baru. It’s a nice gentle clean river with the villagers and some picnickers playing in the river.
The oil that was spilt into the Sungei Selangor originated from the depot of a garbage collection company on the banks of the tributary Sungei Gong. The owner says that it was a repair and maintenance facility for his garbage trucks servicing the contract.
He also said that he was a sub-contractor for the contractor who had won household waste collection tenders from the Selayang Municipal Council.
Pollution happens when councils give waste management contracts to companies who offer the lowest price. Some of these have no ability or intention to do the job. Instead, they sub-contract it out to others at an even lower rate and keep the difference for themselves.
Having taken an unsustainable rate, the sub-contractors cut corners. In this instance, there was no proper system to collect and securely store used oils and hydraulic fluids.
The Environmental Quality Act 1974 and its later amendments impose specific regulations on waste generation of industrial activities upstream of drinking water intake points.
Therefore this whole episode that panicked the Klang Valley folk can be traced to a local authority that awarded household waste collection contracts to a rent-seeking, pseudo operator.
Don’t only look at the Selayang Local Council. There’s a similar type of garbage truck depot off the Subang Airport to Kampung Subang road. Operated by an Alam Flora sub-contractor or sub-sub-contractor, it’s just beside the bridge spanning Sungei Subang.
This location is downstream of the water intake point and it’s allowed to discharge “B” standard wastewater. However, looking at the temporary status of this depot, we can be safe in assuming that it doesn’t even have a wastewater trap and oil separator.
But that’s small fry. The real big fish is the garbage transfer station at Taman Wahyu, beside the MRR2.
The Taman Wahyu Transfer station was funded by Japan and donated to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Operation is contracted to a private-sector contractor. The tonnes/day flow of waste water from the Taman Wahyu transfer station is undersized, under-engineered, and totally inadequate of meeting Std “B” wastewater. Who’s to blame? Obviously, the Ministry should upgrade the wastewater treatment plant and the operator should only be penalized if the wastewater treatment plant is not operated as per specifications.
Similarly too, the Selayang Municipal Council should take this as a lesson and award municipal waste collection contracts to capable companies who have proper depots and good trucks. It should take the first step by terminating the contractor that sub-contracted his business to a cut-corner and polluting operator. One of the termination clauses includes sub-contracting.
It would be preferable for council to award contracts to genuine operators based on a price per residential unit that the council has determined, than to award to the lowest bidder. This contracted service standard should be enforced religiously and this will systemically minimise river pollution.
The second step that councils must take to remove themselves from the Top Polluter list is to build new landfills and close the dumpsites that have encroached the river banks. Everytime the river floods, it washes away the garbage that clog up the booms across the Klang River.
The fuel price hike:
When Indonesia cut its fuel subsidy early this year, there wasn’t the anarchy that some had anticipated. There were small, dissipated demonstrations but nothing of the scale that had been feared.
Analysts said that probably, the people had already been prepared for the price hike and that the demonstration were organised as a matter of record than real, self immolation type of protests that garner world attention.
Similarly, the price hike drew the expected petrol station queues.
This price hike reduces the fuel subsidy by RM3.3 billion for 2014 (based on current prices). The government had allocated RM24.8 billion for fuel subsidies this year.
Most taxpayers will be at peace if they feel that the fuel subsidy cut is replaced with direct subsidies to those who need it.
They won’t be happy if the tax money is inefficiently used.
As fuel subsidies are gradually withdrawn to bring Malaysia back into the competitive and innovative world, it’s time that the government also increases public transport subsidies in tandem and fairly.
For instance, while Rapid Bus is fully funded by the government, it is sad that private bus companies that have been servicing the public for 60 years or more are grinding to a halt because they cannot sustain their business anymore.
Yes, the Land Public Transport Commission has a fund to subsidise privately-owned stage bus operators and is fond of announcing that private operators are encouraged to apply.
But for as long as private stage bus operators are closing shop, and there is a net attrition of private sector operators, then SPAD is caught in a lie.
It may have the good intentions, but the desired results are not being achieved.