En Piarapakaran, salam sejahtera. Kawan saya beritahu saya harga air selangor mungkin naik lebih 50% jika kerajaan Selangor jual paip kepada PAAB dan ini rupanya salah satu punca isu air selangor. Saya ingin tanya, paip ini mesti jualkah? Apakah harga air betul-betul akan naik lebih 50%? Apakah rancangan kerajaan pusat tentang ini? Hidup kami dahlah susah. Semua barang naik harga. Gula baru naik 20 sen. Kalau air naik lagi, susah lagi hidup kita. Harap-harap kerajaan pusat dapat elakkan kenaikan harga air dan buat yang terbaik untuk kita. Satu lagi, boleh minta tolong tanya pihak berkuasa adakah harga elektrik akan naik? Kawan-kawan saya kata ada ura-ura harga elektrik mungkin naik bulan depan. Terima kasih.

Piara, 2011-05-12
En Zul, paip tidak perlu di jual. Sebenarnya paip sebahagiannya di bayar oleh pengguna semasa projek perumahan di bina. Selebihnya di tebus melalui tarif. Maka, tak perlulah untuk memindahan paip. Pengiraan kami adalah nilai terendah kenaikan tarif yang boleh berlaku. Sebagai badan bebas, kami telah mengeluarkan laporan mengenai isu ini dan terpulanglah kepada kerajaan pusat untuk menyelesaikan hal ini. Kenaikan harga air bileh diminimumkan melalui model WSIA dengan syarat pemegang konsesi dilesenkan sepenuhnya dan perjanjian konsesi terbatal. Jika tidak, ini tidak dapat tercapai. Tentang isu harga elektrik, saya pun tidak pasti. Kita kena tunggu pengumuman daripada kerajaan. Terima kasih.

Dear Mr Piarapakaran, I‘m Stanley Tan from Cheng, Melaka. I‘ve received a forwarded email regarding AWER‘s report. I‘ve read the report and found that Melaka is under SPAN now. AWER‘s report also stated that people will be involve in the tariff setting process. Recently melaka‘s water company has raised the tariff quietly. Neither the company nor SPAN involved us in the recent tariff hike process in melaka. What do you think about it? Is SPAN really regulating the water company properly or just some wayang kulit? I hope you could assist me in getting an answer for this. I want to know what I pay for. Malaysians are not stupid. Thanks.

Piara, 2011-05-06
Dear Mr Stanley, I will answer the last sentence first. Malaysians are not stupid. This is the reason we produced a report for public to read. I’m glad you took the time to read it. Tariff setting must involve public. In fact, not announcing an approved tariff is way more serious. I did raise the issue to SPAN after I read it in an online news portal. I believe SPAN has directed SAMB to issue a statement directly to inform public. But, I agree with you that this should not have happened. Maybe AWER will suggest to SPAN the transparency of KPI setting and how public can view their annual performance, i.e. how they achieve the target set annually. AWER will monitor the performance of SPAN and water operators periodically and we will make necessary consultation, complaints or reports to highlight to authority and public. When more people know their rights in the water restructuring, the better it is in monitoring. We will be an informed community that makes an informed judgment.

Dear Mr. Piarapakaran, I‘ve read the news about Selangor water issue last week and the AWER‘s report. As you mentioned in this blog that it involves our survivor, I just wanna ask a simple question to you: Are you confident that the ministry will be able to implement the so called "core values of WSIA" that were reported in AWER‘s report? So far the ministry say nothing about it. My concern is, will the ministry really audit the water company and let us involve in the tariff hike process? or this is an election gimmick? If the law is so good, why the ministry is so quiet? or they are just aiming to bad mouth Selangor government? I do agree with AWER‘s report that the pipe cost might cause high tariff to us and it is definitely something that we don‘t want. But I believe the state government is trying to do their best to protect people. Because all these while we only see the state government is fighting to cancel the concession agreement and ministry is giving in to the water companies and fight with state government for no reason. For me, the root cause of the high liabilities is from the unfair concession agreement. SYABAS and Puncak Niaga are blood sucker. Rozali‘s salary is more than 5 million a year. I believe his salary is more than Peter Chin‘s salary. Is this what a water company should do? I believe SYABAS and Puncak Niaga can‘t pay the laibilities basically is because need to pay high salary to Rozali. Why don‘t the ministry audit SYABAS and Puncak Niaga using the law? Thank you. Joanne

Piara, 2011-05-05
Dear Joanne, Thank you for the comment. On the implementation of the core values, AWER will monitor the performance of SPAN and KeTTHA in achieving it. In fact, 5 years down the road anyone of us can feel if there is a difference. On your second part of the comment, AWER stands firm in strong relationship between state and federal in ending the concession agreement based on WSIA principles. The similar mechanism was used in Johor. There has been few articles in local dailies supporting concession agreement to stay put because they put up upfront and they are such a loving group of people. Unfortunately, the fact is that the concession holders used the agreement to get bank loans and this amounts are paid through tariff. Yes, you and me pay it. Therefore, it is vital that public understand the issue better. All the irregularities you have raised must be addressed through restructuirng process. An agreement was signed, but it still has to follow WSIA. That is why we made the report public. We want everyone to know WSIA in a simple manner. The state government should not delay and perhaps now they will have better understanding of the issue via the report. Let us hope, we can achieve betterment faster than what we can imagine.