PETALING JAYA, Oct 11 -- Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK) will take over the operation and maintenance of the public sewerage system under the Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) and Pasir Gudang City Council (MBPG) from Dec 1.
Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said with the acquisition, the management of the entire sewerage system in the Peninsula had been taken over by IWK.
"Through the acquisition, IWK will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of 191 wastewater treatment plants, namely 147 in the MBJB area and another 44 in MBPG area involving a population of 1.46 million people.
"A total of five large centralised sewage treatment plants will be developed, namely the Sungai Kim-Kim Pasir Gudang, Tasik Utara, Mount Austin, Kota Puteri and Kulai regional plants," he told reporters after the signing of a collaboration agreement for the acquisition of public sewerage systems at MBJB and MBPG between Johor Special Water Sdn Bhd (a Johor government-owned company) and IWK, here, today.
Tuan Ibrahim and Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad witnessed the signing of the collaboration by Johor Special Water chief executive officer (CEO) Zulkiflee Abas and IWK CEO Narendran Maniam.
Tuan Ibrahim said the existing staff would be retained and an allocation of RM97 million would be channelled to upgrade the existing plants within two city councils.
He said through the acquisition, focus would be given to operational management, more systematic maintenance, and compliance of treated effluents according to the standards set by the Department of Environment.
He said the federal government would also focus on 18 major rivers that were indirectly affected by the problem of sewage pollution that was not treated properly, such as in Sungai Skudai, Sungai Kim-Kim and Sungai Masai.
Tuan Ibrahim said the main problems faced by these rivers were the high levels of biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids and ammonia nitrogen.
-- BERNAMA
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