MAINTENANCE – the act of keeping property or equipment in good condition by making repairs, correcting problems and so on¹. Let’s take car maintenance as an example to better understand this concept. Frequently scheduled maintenance is crucial to ensure our car is in good condition always, therefore avoiding the unexpected breakdown.
The same goes for all our water assets in Air Selangor. As the sole water services provider in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, we are responsible to abstract, treat and distribute clean and safe water supply to our 8.4 million consumers. All of our 34 water treatment plants (WTP) operate 24 hours every day to produce an average of 5,000 million litres per day (MLD) of treated water that is then distributed through over 29,000 km pipe length. And it does not stop there – we also manage over 1,610 service reservoirs, 732 pump houses and 1,117 water sampling stations.
As the largest water operator in Malaysia with thousands of assets, it is Air Selangor’s responsibility to perform frequent scheduled maintenance work. Some of these assets, like the pipelines, for example, are more than 20 to 30 years old. At the moment, we have a total of 87,815 assets while the estimated number of assets is expected to increase to 104,624 by 2023.
Why scheduled maintenance work needs to be implemented accordingly?
Every asset has its life estimate and must be maintained or serviced before it reaches the breaking point to avoid any unsuspected damage. All Air Selangor’s assets have to undergo the Preventive Maintenance and Corrective Maintenance programme. With the implementation of the Work and Asset Management System, maintenance works can be efficiently scheduled and performed to avoid any sudden incidents that may lead to an unscheduled water disruption that will affect the consumers at large.
What will happen if the maintenance work is not implemented?
If we do not conduct the maintenance work as scheduled, it will be highly likely to cause unscheduled water disruption, due to unsuspecting breakdown of the pump house equipment, water treatment plant assets, or pipe burst which will consequently affect the consumers. As such, the implementation of scheduled maintenance work can reduce the probability of unscheduled water disruption occurring.
Scheduled maintenance work is crucial to avoid any sudden pipe burst incidents.
Usually, when maintenance work is implemented, consumers will face a period of scheduled water disruption. What is the process involved during a scheduled water disruption?
Each year, Air Selangor plans to implement the scheduled maintenance works on our water supply assets based on their useful life estimate. However, before any big scale scheduled maintenance works is implemented, water operators must present a comprehensive plan to Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN). Upon approval, water operators are mandated to inform the consumers seven (7) days before the start of the work. This includes publishing the water disruption and water supply recovery plan for the affected areas. This allows affected consumers to store adequate water supply depending on their household’s needs. Water operators must also provide timely updates of the entire schedule of engineering works.
During any scheduled water disruptions, maintenance work will be implemented on the relevant assets within the stipulated time. As an example, when maintenance work at a water treatment plant is completed, it will take up to six (6) hours to stabilise each part of the water treatment process at the water treatment plant. This is to ensure that the reservoir balance is filled up to the 4-metre level while also ensuring it is in an optimal state. Water supply will then be distributed through the water supply distribution system and will take 12 hours to refill the reservoirs.
Consumers will start to receive their water supply in stages once the water supply system has stabilised. The duration of water supply recovery in the affected areas will vary depending on the distance of the consumers’ premises and the water pressure at the distribution system.
What are the alternative water supply assistance available during scheduled or unscheduled water disruption?
During scheduled or unscheduled water disruptions, Air Selangor provides alternative water supply assistance through water tankers to be mobilised to the affected areas, with priority given to critical premises such as hospitals and dialysis centres as well as for funeral services. Consumers can also visit hentitugas.airselangor.com, to keep updated with relevant information such as the affected areas, estimated recovery time, locations of Pusat Khidmat Setempat and public water taps that will be activated during water disruption incidents.
Will there be any occurrence where consumers do not experience any water disruption incident during scheduled water disruptions times?
Consumers will be informed about any water disruptions through the Air Selangor Application especially for those involving water treatment plant shutdowns that will trigger scheduled water disruptions. But there are also instances where the scheduled maintenance works would not cause any water disruptions to the consumers.
Any scheduled maintenance work will be properly planned and would involve a huge team consisting of contractors and on-site staff, water treatment plant management team, water quality lab specialists, distribution team, customer experience, health and safety officers, communication update for public and regional offices manpower. Everyone will team up and work together through the coordination of the Emergency Response Plan Team.
To minimise the impact of disruption, Air Selangor may activate a mitigation plan to supply alternative water supply from the unaffected water treatment plants. This is made possible through the interconnectivity of our water supply system.
What are the criteria set by Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) that must be followed before scheduled maintenance work can be implemented?
Before the implementation of any maintenance work, water operators must comply with the guidelines set by SPAN to obtain approval on the work. Water operators must ensure that:
• Critical areas such as hospitals and dialysis centres that cannot be affected by water disruption are identified.
• The date and time when the work is implemented do not take place seven days before or seven days after major festivities as well as major examination dates set by the government such as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).
Some of these assets like the pipelines that were inherited is now over 20 to 30 years old, does Air Selangor have any pipe replacement programme in the pipeline?
Through Air Selangor’s 30-year plan, we have accounted for the pipe replacement programme, in which we plan to change over 6,000 km asbestos pipe with approximately 150km of pipe per year. These pipes are categorised as ageing pipes or beyond economic repair which requires replacement. Across our distribution network, these ageing pipes are mostly Asbestos Cement (AC), and when replacement is due, the pipes are replaced with High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Ductile Iron (DI) pipes which are more resilient to pressure and weather changes.
Towards A Sustainable Future
We strive to continuously deliver clean, safe, and sustainable water supply to our consumers. We can achieve this objective through our continuous efforts to increase supply margin, improve operational efficiency at our water treatment plants and minimise losses in our distribution networks. Our unwavering commitment to deliver the best customer experience through a high standard of service is underpinned by the core values practised by our employees.
We hope that the public can play their part in consuming water more efficiently and prudently to ensure the conservation and protection of the raw water sources and at the same time reduce the scarcity of raw water supply in the long run.
1 “Maintanence.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maintenance.
