This presentation slides was made by group of master students of University Utara Malaysia, School of government, program of public management, in order to address the issue of water. it may helps you in your future tasks or assignments and gives you more knowledge about this kind of issues.

1. The Wet Valley
Crisis
Case study
Prepared for:
 Dr. Jeff.
Prepared by:
 Haliza. “Overview”
 Hissein. “The best managerial technique and suggestions”
 Dikko. “The main problem”
 Ben Lahcene. “Addressing the main problem”

2. Outlines
1. Overview.
2. The main problem.
3. Addressing the main problem.
4. The best managerial technique and suggestions.

3. 1. overview
 Globally, water is under threat from depletion, pollution,
mismanagement and even from being hijacked by multi-nationals.
 Hence, if a country has bad water governance, its water resources
would not be managed sustainably.
 Klang Valley is a part of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur territory.
 Since 1998, Klang Valley experienced a serious water shortage and
affected many residential in term of water supply.
 The situation of water declining in Klang Valley since 1995, when the
director of Selangor Waterworks Department (SWD) presented the
impending water situation to the state government.

4.  Generally, the causes contributed to the shortage of water in the
Klang Valley:
• Demand for water has been growing at
7.6% annually.
• Pipe leakages and faulty meter recordings.
River pollution.
• Shortage of manpower and financial
resources in the SWD (privatization).
 However, there are internal and external
problems that caused the crisis occurred.

5. 2. The main problem
• The main problem in this case is Poor Planning.
• Poor planning: The problem could have been avoided if people
are more proactive and do some long term planning instead of
looking for short term solution to some complex problems. Mr.
Junid
• The poor planning of the water crisis in the Klang Valley leads
to other problems discussed below:
• Inter governmental relationship problem. The inter relationship
between the SWD and the Selangor State Government. For
example the early signal regarding water crisis in high
possibility to occur by the SWD to the Selangor State
Government in 1995.
• Shortage of staffs: Mr Junid had already explained many times
that his department was facing a shortage of staff.

6. • Communication restriction due to insufficient communication
equipment required by staffs, no monitoring of lorry movement
resulting in water distribution process not effective and broken pipe
because of pipe ageing factor (installed since Malaysian independence
time). For example time factor since it take 30 minutes to 1 hour to fill
up one tanker.
• Ethics: The problems that cause a temper flared up in the residents
because they didn’t receive water supply as promised by the SWD.
For example, the chairman said that the Selangor SWD had
implemented water rationing for 207 areas as a short term measure to
overcome the water shortage problem. The distribution of water was
divided into 2 areas zone A and zone B, each would receive water
supply for 12 hour on alternate days.

7. • High demand of water consumption due to industrial
development and rapid population growth in the city of Kuala
Lumpur and Selangor.
• El-Nino and river pollution as factors paralyzing amount of
water supply during the crisis. Factories located along side the
rivers has been discharging great amount of chemicals
effluence which affect the water treatment plants.

8. 3. Addressing the main problem
Which managerial approach to apply?
Traditional
management
New public
management

11. 1) Intergovernmental relationship: Selangor
waterworks Department (SWD) need to coordinate and cooperate
together and harmonize the activities of the government during
this water crisis because the overlaps that occur in the
implementation process of the public sector activities are
inevitable, resulting from different forces (departments, agencies,
parties, politicians) that are involved in this sector.

12. • The best approach to address this problem here is the
traditional management approach because this approach takes
the view that managers have a more policy making focus and
as we have seen that there is an absence of policy making and
poor planning. This management style is as much, if not more
concerned, with how goals are accomplished. Also concerned
with making sure that policies are in place to ensure that
processes are in compliance with government regulations.

13. 2) El-Nino, river pollution, high population
growth, rapid development growth:
all of those are external problems that contributed significantly in
this crisis and make it more difficult due to insufficiency in
decision making process as well as poor strategic planning.

14. 3) Ethical problem:
ethical problem which is lying on the residents that everything is
okay and the situation in the hand “..The Chairman saying that
everything was under control...” page 126.

15. • Here we believe that the new public management approach can
be very helpful to eliminate those problems but with some
implication of the traditional approach like control from the
headquarters and control on inputs and procedures.

16. 4) The shortage of staffs and communication
equipment:
The problems here caused by lack of prioritizing and
misallocation of resources by the state water supply authority.

17. • New public management insure that the resources demand are
under check also make sure that we are doing more with less
means that public servants shall endeavor to ensure the proper,
effective and efficient use of public money and it focus is to
ensure client satisfaction and thus gives managers the flexibility
and tools to make decisions “hire new employees and purchase
new equipment” that will allow more efficient and effective ways
to solve and end this crisis.

18. 4. The managerial technique
planning methods needs to be improved to address the main
problem because it :
1. guide and define the organization’s goal .
2. Identify the problem and opportunity to capitalize on.
3. Designing alternative course of action and forecast the
consequences of each alternative.
4. compare and evaluate the alternatives with each other and choose
the alternative that offers the most preferred outcome.
5. Implementing the plan through developing a budget, project
schedules regulatory measures and Gather feedback and review
progress.

19. Suggestions
1. SWD &SSG should make strategic planning by using the rational
planning technique which identifies the problem to be solved and
highlight alternatives course of action.
2. Designing a technology in management of water distribution
including 24 hour complaint hotline, computerizing water
distribution system and broken pipe detectors. Hence promoting
and improving distribution, creating control in water distribution to
each area and monitoring the schedule of lorry tankers operation.
3. Holding workshops and discussions with the technical about how
to handling the water crisis and enlighten them the importance of
making the right decision when a problem sets in.

20. 4. They should Make Cooperation with the meteorology,
climatology, geophysics institutions to get more advice related to
water crisis and also recruiting more employ’s to solve shortage
of staffs in SWD will enhance water distribution in the Klang
valley.
5. They should relocate those factories located close to the river to
new area or build industrial zone because there part of problem by
making pollution .
6. Issues of ethnic each of them should take his responsibility to
serving public first and also decision making should build Based
on the best interests of the collective, overarching community or
national good, not narrow interests of small or self-serving groups.