by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, September 22, 1994:
Warning by Director-General of Sewerage Services, Lum Weng Kee that drinking tap water in Malaysia may be drinking treated sewage most shocking, outrageous and revolting!
The warning by the Director-General of Sewerage Services, Lum Weng Kee that drinking tap water in Malaysia may be drinking treated sewage, is most shocking, outrageous and ever revolting.
Lum gave this warning in his keynote address at the conference on solid and industrial waste management systems in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. (Sun 22 September 1994 p.12)
Lum said: “Considering that water-borne and sanitation related diseases are still endemic in this country and that in many cases we are actually drinking treated sewage, it is imperative that sewerage development in this country needs to be accelerated drastically”.
Many Malaysians drink water directly from the tap, as the Malaysian authorities have boasted that the Malaysian tap water is potable (drinkable) and safe.
In fact, foreign tourists are told by tourist brochures that tap water is potable and safe unlike other countries with inferior public health and infrastructure facilities.
Now, however, the director-general of Sewerage Services, Lum Weng Kee, has publicly declared that drinking tap water m Malaysia is drinking treated sewage. If this is true, then the Malaysian water authorities have misled and even deceived Malaysians who had relied on their assurances to drink water from the tap – as well as deceiving foreign tourists that the tap water in Malaysia is potable.
If drinking water from the tap is drinking treated sewage, then the Malaysian water authorities should explain why they had been so irresponsible as to hide this fact from the Malaysian public for so long.
This is most scandalous and irresponsible, not only on the part of the various Malaysian water authorities, but also on the part of the Ministry of Works, which is responsible for general co-ordination of the quality of drinking water supply to the consumers.
Can the Minister for Works, Datuk Leo Moggie and the Deputy Minister, Kerk Choo Ting, explain why they had allowed Malaysians to drink water from the tap when they would be drinking treated sewage?
As Malaysians and tourists drinking water directly from, the tap would be drinking treated sewage, is the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of tourism sending out urgent warnings that tap water in Malaysia is not potable – and that all tourist, brochures telling foreign tourists that tap water in Malaysia is safe to drink would be withdrawn and corrected to warn against drinking directly from the tap?