Kuala Lumpur : Gombak water treatment plant shut down due to palm oil spillage

The Gombak water treatment plant (WTP) has been shut down temporarily due to palm oil spillage from an overturned tanker at Km28 of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway.

The plant, managed by Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, was shut down soon after the tanker-van accident at 3pm yesterday and cleaning up the oil spill which has contaminated Sungai Gombak, is ongoing.

Puncak Niaga Gombak WTP operations assistant general manager, Azhani Sukimi, said the clean water supplier would inspect the raw water quality of the river on an hourly basis throughout the night.

The company has also started cleaning up palm oil residue from parts of Sungai Gombak.

“We are using sawdust, activated carbon and oil booms to treat the polluted water and we will only reopen the treatment plant once our part of the river is cleared of palm oil,” he told reporters at the Sungai Gombak intake facility at Batu 14 Gombak, here, today.
Water concessionaires tap raw water from Sungai Gombak and each of them is given a parcel to tap water from.

Meanwhile, the affected areas such as the International Islamic University in Gombak, Jalan Gombak-Benting (Lama), JHEOA Hospital at Batu 12, Kampung Simpang Tiga Gombak, Kampung Sungai Cincin, Bukit Lela, Taman Berlian, Kampung Changkat, Kampung Kerdas, Kampung Sungai Mulia and Taman Kamariah will receive water supply from Sungai Batu and Sungai Rumput until Sungai Gombak is given the all-clear.

The accident involving the oil palm tanker and a laundry van at Km28 of the KL-Karak Highway yesterday, which killed three people, resulted in the estimated 26,880kg of crude palm oil spill into Sungai Gombak and spreading about three kilometres downstream from the location.