Johor water cuts: Supply restored for some of 300,000 affected residents; pump repairs at halfway mark

The supply cut has halted his car wash business for two days, but he still needs to pay his workers their salary, he said.

“We have to be prepared that there might be no water over the next few days. We have not showered since the disruption,” Syukri added.

A Singaporean resident of Iskandar Puteri, who did not want to be named, said she and her neighbours at the Horizon Hills estate have not received any help or assistance as of Thursday afternoon.

The 48-year-old business owner has been driving around trying to buy water, but it was sold out in all the shops she visited on Thursday.

When she did manage to get some water the day before, “shops were full with people stocking up “like (in) COVID times”.

“There are two adults and a young child in my house. None of us have had a shower since the night before,” she said, adding that they first noticed the water disruption on Wednesday morning.

“Luckily I have a dehumidifier so I have been collecting the water from it to flush the toilet,” she told CNA.

The cuts were caused by heavy rain on Tuesday that submerged and damaged the six raw water pumps at Sungai Johor plant. 

The pumps were supposed to be repaired “completely” on Wednesday “but it is still a problem”, said Johor’s Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi on Thursday during a state assembly sitting in Kota Iskandar, as reported by news outlet The Star.

Onn Hafiz called an emergency meeting with state water operator Ranhill SAJ on Thursday morning to address the unplanned disruption and ensure that the pumps at the water treatment plant are repaired as soon as possible.