Open Letter to SYABAS

'...elakkan pembaziran'

'Don't waste' water according to part of your company slogan is like rubbing salt to our wounds.

Since our last payment on 15/10/09 for an unusually high water bill to 02/10/09 of Rm145.44, the monthly bills have increased progressively to a total of Rm821.45 as at 02/02/2010! This happened when the house was actually vacant for the few months!

How I wish Syabas had cut off the water supply according to your standard operating procedures after the first bill was unpaid within the required time period. The water meter reader should have been alerted by the unusually high 'usage' if the company policy had been truly proactive in avoiding wastage of water.

Now, since water is an essential commodity and Syabas being a monopolistic supplier, I have no choice but to pay under protest if I wish to have continued supply of water. Is there anyway that I can hope for fair consideration for this unpleasant situation? Will Syabas consider giving me some rebate for its part in being negligent in not cutting off supply when the due amount was unpaid much earlier?

I hope to get an early reply to this mail before I decide on the next course of action.

I really hope Syabas can give me a partial rebate to show its good corporate responsibility instead of taking advantage of an absent owner unaware of the likely leakage in the piping system within the house compound. This is the only instance where a strict enforcement of cutting off supply would have the owner's gratitude. Why not make it a good public relations exercise out of this?

From my experience in the late 80's, I discovered from our site clerk that almost every of the 101 houses in the Setapak project had the problem of water leakages over a period of 2-3 years. I used to wonder why pvc pipes were not banned from being used underground, especially where the site was ex-mining and the foundation was of the type which connected all the houses in a row underground.

Just imagine the amount of water wasted underground over the years by each and every residential house. It will start with an unusually high water bill. For those who are vigilant, they would monitor for another month and replaced the underground pipes (without having to check where the leak actually was) with exposed pipes.

We talk about water conservation and tried to educate the public on how to prevent water wastage, yet the water authorities seem to fail in their duties in monitoring obvious leakages and helping consumers from incurring unnecessarily exorbitant water bills.

It is no longer a problem of just 'bills must be paid' but the moral responsibility as a water authority to try ways and means to conserve water for humanity too. A good monitoring system would help.

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