Xavier Jayakumar confident of solving Selangor water issue

HULU LANGAT (July 5): Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr A Xavier Jayakumar is confident of solving the long-standing water impasse between Selangor state's Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd and Gamuda Bhd's 40%-owned Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash).

"I think this issue can be settled. We are going to push everyone to make sure that this objective is reached within the 30 days after I got the extension approval from the Cabinet meeting yesterday (July 4).

"I'm not going back to the Cabinet to ask for another extension so I'm very confident that we will handle it within this one month," he told reporters at the press conference during his site visit to Langat 2 water treatment plant today.

Xavier said the ministry would like to have a quick conclusion on a "willing-buyer willing-seller" basis for the whole matter so that the full restructuring can be achieved.

"We need to speed up the process for us to get the 'willing-buyer willing-selling' situation between the state government and Splash.

"So from that agreement, Pengurusan Aset Air Bhd will be the party in charge to make the payment to be agreed on by these two parties at the later stage," he added.

This came following Cabinet approval to extend the deadline for another month for the restructuring of the Selangor water industry after the deadline ended yesterday.

To recap, the process of restructuring the Selangor water industry has dragged on for a long time following the failure of the state government and the previous Barisan Nasional-led federal government to agree on the value of the offer for acquisition of Splash.

During that time, the state government only settled the acquisition of three other water concessionaires including Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd and Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd.

Xavier, who is Member of Parliament of Kuala Langat, said he had held discussions with the relevant parties, including Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari, on the matter and that there were not many more points to be finalised, according to a local news portal.