Perfume spill that caused water supply disruption in 472 areas an "accident" - Luas

SHAH ALAM - Seventeen tonnes of perfume essence from a container involved in an accident has been identified as the main cause of Sungai Semenyih’s odour pollution that resulted to water cuts in five districts in Selangor today.

The Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) in a statement said the container carrying the liquid in 17 intermediate bulk containers (IBC) was involved in an accident at km 44.1 heading north, Elite Highway near Bandar Serenia, Negeri Sembilan.

It said one of the tanks burst while another tank leaked causing the spill.

"The liquid waste suction work is being carried out by a contractor appointed by Luas and with the help of two suction tanker trucks belonging to the Indah Water Konsortium (IWK).

"The containers removal at the location managed by Plus started at 2.30pm and is expected to be completed at 5pm," the statement read.

Luas said there was longer no residual liquid flow into the river following the preventive measures taken namely by building a sand fort and additional placement of Activated Carbon along the polluted-water flow of the relevant drains.

As of 2pm, Luas said the static monitoring site of 1.5 km from the water pump station was still picking up its odour thus could not start the water treatment operations could not begin just yet.

"Luas and all parties involved are implementing remedial actions as soon as possible," he said.

It was previously reported that a total of 472 areas in five districts in Petaling, Hulu Langat, Sepang, Putrajaya and Kuala Langat experienced unscheduled water supply disruptions 7am today.

Air Selangor said the disruption was due to the suspension of Sungai Semenyih LRA and Bukit Tampoi LRA due to a pollution incident at Jenderam Hilir Raw Water Pumping Station.