The planned massive water disruption that will happen to Klang Valley from Dec 19 till Christmas Eve has attracted heavy criticisms from the residents and huge backlash from netizens.

According to a news report, a total of 814 areas in the Klang Valley involving 3.89 million users will be affected due to maintenance work at the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) main entry substation in Bukit Badong, Hulu Selangor,

It is most inconsiderate, unprofessional and unacceptable for TNB to have scheduled the maintenance work that will cause such widespread water disruption during pre Christmas season.

There can be no justification for picking such bad timing for scheduled maintenance.

Only probable reason why such a bad decision has been made is either because the decision-makers are so ignorant of how important is water supply to the consumers during a festive season or they just do not care about the inconvenience and hardship that the water disruption will bring about.

What is even more unacceptable is that despite the huge backlash, TNB has not shown any sign that it is prepared to postpone the planned maintenance work.

Why is TNB so reluctant to postpone the scheduled maintenance when it is so clear that the water disruption that will result is going to heavily affect the people?

Who will ever believe that the maintenance work must be carried out on the exact dates planned and that there can be no change in the dates?

A National Water Services Commission (Span) spokesperson has earlier said the Dec 19 date requested by TNB was approved based on its data that showed lowest water consumption rate at the end of the year.

“Many people are away during the year-end school holidays and our data shows that the lowest water consumption in the year was during this period”.

The comments show how the decision-makers were so ignorant of the importance of water supply during the pre-Christmas season.

How could a decision be made with so much weightage given to the lowest consumption factor without any regard for the inconvenience caused during a festive season?

A considerate decision maker would not have proposed any planned maintenance work that will cause massive water disruption during any pre-festive or festive season, whether it is Christmas, Hari Raya Adilfitri, Deepavali or Chinese New Year.

Since it appears that TNB will want to proceed with the scheduled maintenance, I urge Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili to step in and instruct that the TNB maintenance work be postponed to a suitable date.

TERESA KOK is DAP national vice-chairperson and MP for Seputeh.