(Bernama) - The Selangor government should immediately stop giving misleading press statements on the current water issue as it was causing unnecessary panic among consumers, said the Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER) Wednesday.

Its president S. Piarapakaran said the recent statement by the state government that the dams in Selangor were full and thus did not justify the call for water rationing was very misleading.

“The core issue is not raw water but the supply of treated water, which is unable to keep pace with the rising demand,” he said.

He said that what the water experts were saying was that the treatment plants were being overworked and any more strain on them might jeopardise the supply chain and thus, warrant the rationing.

He explained that dams were designed to withhold water for specified periods and if the water was utilised faster than its planned usage, the level in the dams would go down, causing supply disruption to the treatment plants.

As for rationing proposed by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), Piarapakaran said only the National Water Commission (SPAN) has the authority to make any announcements on the matter.

He said the public and businesses were not interested in who supplied the water so long as the supply was not disrupted.