The wife of a local politician has apologized for boasting about the abundance of water in her home while taps ran dry throughout other parts of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor last week.
Masdiana Muhamad, the wife of Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari, had on Saturday posted photos of her family in a pool of water and another one of a water truck parked outside her home, stirring anger among people who had to queue up for water at public taps and tanks.
Some also assumed based on her photos that Masdiana had water supply delivered to her personally to fill up the pool. On Instagram, her caption read: “When there’s no water.”
Responding to the slew of hate online, she said that she had not intended to show off about her easy access to water and denied that she had the pool filled with drinkable water delivered by truck.
“I understand now that my tone-deafness in uploading the photos has caused many to speculate,” she wrote online yesterday.
“Claims that the tanker was sent to fill the swimming pool is not true. As a mother, I only wanted to thank the hard workers of Air Selangor (Selangor Water Provider) for their efforts these few days. I had no intention to gloat. I’m sorry if I have offended anyone with my posts.”
Untunglahhh air hantar ke rumah… siapa la yang beruntung ni kannnn pic.twitter.com/zYXR9vdcjv
— Noreen (@NoreenHadzim) September 5, 2020
Millions of homes across Kuala Lumpur, Selangor lived without water for at least 24 hours last week after state water provider Air Selangor disrupted its supply on Thursday due to water pollution. Four water treatment plants had to shut down that day and water supply only resumed progressively nearly midnight on Saturday.
The Sungai Gong river, where water is sourced, was found polluted with oil traced to a factory in the Rawang district. Its four owners, said to be siblings, were remanded by police on Saturday morning.
Photos and videos on social media showed people queuing with pails to collect water from public taps and water tanks. Some condominium residents even resorted to using the water from their swimming pools.
https://twitter.com/wak_dojer/status/1302247536858595328
If found guilty of polluting the river, the four owners of the Rawang factory may each be fined up to RM500,000 (about US$120,000) and jailed for five years.
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