PETALING JAYA: Odour pollution was detected at the Air Selangor water pump station, causing another unscheduled water disruption to some parts of the Klang Valley.

       The disruption, which saw 463 areas in Selangor go without water for over 12 hours, has been restored as of this morning.

       The affected areas include Petaling (172 areas), Hulu Langat (54 areas), Sepang (194 areas), Putrajaya (23 areas) and Kuala Langat (20 areas).

       The pollution was detected at noon yesterday at the Jenderam Hilir Raw Water Pump Station, forcing it to close.

       Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) corporate communication head Elina Baseri said the Sungai Semenyih Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was temporarily shut down for 12 hours beginning 12.15pm yesterday for the clean-up job.

       “As zero TON (threshold odour number) readings for the odour pollution were recorded at 4pm, the WTP has resumed its operations to begin the water flushing process.

       “Clean and treated water supply resumed in stages starting from 12.30am today,” it said in a statement.

       According to Elina, water tankers were also mobilised to consumers to help them with the interruption, prioritising critical premises.

       She said Air Selangor was making all efforts to minimise the impact of disruption.

       “Consumers can also refer to all our official communication channels such as the Air Selangor application, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or call the Air Selangor Contact Centre at 15300 to keep up with the updates,” she said.

       Comments on Air Selangor’s Facebook page showed that some netizens are enraged and are calling for the authorities to punish the perpetrators.

       User Qiqi Mona said perpetrators involved in the pollution should be traced.

       “We can see how pollution can affect so many places. These people need to be caught,” she wrote.

       User Siti Syairah said she hoped the polluters would be caught and punished for the water pollution and disruption.

       Meanwhile, user Siti Zaharah Md Nor, who was affected by the water disruption, said she was optimistic the problem would be fixed quickly.

       She said although her area was affected by the water cut, there was still supply.

       In 2020 alone, there were more than a dozen water cuts in the Klang Valley.

       This is not the first time the Jenderam Hilir raw water pump station has been affected by odour pollution.

       On Aug 31 last year, pollution was detected at the water intake, leading to a temporary shutdown.

       Some 463 areas in the Klang Valley were affected by this, and it took two days to restore the water supply.

       On Sept 3, the Sungai Semenyih treatment plant was again forced to be shut down following another odour pollution detected in the raw water source.

       The second incident, which also affected the same number of areas in the Klang Valley, took over a day for water supply to be restored.