Bill On Safe Drinking Water Being Enacted, Says Dr Latiff

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Bernama) -- A bill on safe drinking water is being drawn up to protect consumers and to ensure the people received water supply whose quality is better guaranteed, the Dewan Rakyat was told Tuesday.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said the Bill would ensure a monitoring system backed by a law to be more effective.
"The implications from the Bill is that the people will receive water supply whose quality is better guaranteed and it will give the confidence to consumers on the quality of water supplied to them," he said when replying to Loh Seng Kok (BN-Kelana Jaya) during question time.
Loh had asked Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek to state the water quality standard being used, control and supervisory procedures and frequency of water quality checks and whether the Government was prepared to enact a law on safe drinking water.
Dr Latiff said the water quality level adopted now was based on the guidelines set by the Geneva-based World Health Organisation and the water quality standards from several countries.
It is divided into four main groups -- physical, bacteria, chemical (organic and non-organic) including heavy metal and insecticide residues.
Dr Latiff said the physical and bacteria levels were checked every week at water treatment plants and every month at water distribution centres while the chemical levels (non-organic) were taken monthly at water treatment plants and every six months at distribution areas.
Currently, control and supervision were done by the water regulatory bodies in every state under the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry, while the Health Ministry only acted as a monitoring agency by carrying out sampling and providing advisory services to the water supplier, he said.
"We conduct frequent checks, for instance, every week to ensure the water we drink is clean. For example, in 2005, we carried out 115,000 water samplings," he said.
"With the standard of water sampling being carried out, the ministry gives an assurance that the drinking water piped to consumers is safe and of quality," he added.