KUALA LUMPUR: As of June 30, and based on a three-month average, only 63% or 1.7 million Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd customers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya were consistently paying their water bills on time, while the remaining 37% remain overdue.
Its spokesman told theSun that the figures translate to total outstanding bills of RM383 million involving more than 850,000 customer accounts, with some bills dating as far back as 2018.
“Inconsistent or non-payments are usually due to issues involving the Joint Management Body (JMB) or Management Corporation (MC) of high-rise buildings. While they try to be consistent with their payments, their hands are tied as some residents or tenants do not pay their maintenance fees.
“To address the issue, Air Selangor has collaborated with JMBs and MCs to facilitate migrations from bulk accounts to individual meters. This is one solution since customers often dispute high water bills caused by internal pipe leaks.”
The spokesman said the issue is also about who is responsible for fixing the leak since Air Selangor is only responsible for the pipe laid up to the point of the customer’s meter, as provided under the Water Services Industry Act 2006.
He said pipes laid after the point of the customer’s meter and entering the unit falls under the customer’s responsibility.
“Air Selangor carries out educational and outreach programmes for customers on the clauses under the Water Services Industry Act through email, official letters or face-to-face meetings.
“When there is a dispute over the meter reading, we will monitor and analyse the customer’s water trends using a ‘smart meter’ for three consecutive days, and if it is consistently high, we will inform the customer of a possible internal leak in their water pipe.”
The spokesman said the Selangor government Skim Air Darul Ehsan provides 20m3 of free water every month to eligible low-income households. A total of 285,673 recipients have benefitted from the scheme since its inception in 2019.
He said the Selangor government also introduced the Selangor Free Water Apartment Scheme, which provides 20m3 of free water every month to eligible bulk water meters. A total of 129 recipients have benefitted under this scheme since its inception in 2020.
Meanwhile, he said substantial progress has been made in reducing the rate of non-revenue water (NRW) in 2023, which was recorded at 27.75%, and met the matching grant target set by the National Water Services Commission at 28.5%.
“Air Selangor has embarked on a significant pipe replacement programme to tackle the water losses. Starting this year, we will double our pipe replacement efforts from 150km per year to 300km per year.
“Air Selangor has consistently achieved lower NRW rates through the implementation of targeted programmes like the Physical Loss Reduction and Commercial Loss Reduction initiatives.”
He said on June 26, 2023, Air Selangor launched Hydrolytics MetLab, which aims to provide accurate records of water usage and mitigate the degradation of its records, especially given the increasing number of customers.
