The Selangor Government will use its own money to upgrade two existing water treatment plants if it fails to get federal funding, said state executive councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar.
He said Selangor had requested RM225mil to upgrade the pipelines at the Sungai Selangor Plant 1 and Sungai Selangor Plant 3 to increase water supply in the state.
It had requested the amount through the state Economic Planning Unit but approval was still pending, Dr Xavier told a press conference after visiting the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant near here yesterday.
He said that both plants were producing below their maximum capacity due to lack of sufficient lines to channel out the additional treated water.
He added that the Selangor Government was also prepared to spend an additional RM200mil to RM300mil to upgrade the technology to supply treated water without disrupting the present supply.
According to Dr Xavier, Selangor was prepared to hold a referendum to determine whether the people approved of the state taking over operations from concessionaire Syabas.
Dr Xavier, who insisted that there was no water shortage in Selangor, said it was not necessary to build the Langat 2 treatment plant now.
Should there be a water crisis, it would probably occur only in 2015, he added.
He said there was no need to get raw water from Pahang because Selangor had it in abundance, especially underground where it has never been tapped.
