Faulty pump at PJ lake

Thursday April 9, 2009

By Tan Karr Wei

THE Eco-Fan installed to improve the water quality at the Kelana Jaya lake in April 2008 has stopped functioning, according to Friends of Kelana Jaya Park (FOKJP).

Its vice-president Jack Lim, 70, said the Eco-Fan was a pump installed at various locations of the lake to improve the water quality of the lake.

He said that it stopped working a few months ago and nothing has been done to fix it.

“So far, it doesn’t seem to be doing much to improve the water quality,” said Lim.

Committee member James Cherian, 55, said that there would be small ripples in the lake when the pump was working but there was no one to monitor the pump when it stopped functioning.

Faulty: The Eco-Fan (blue and orange in colour) is placed at several locations of the Kelana Jaya lake and its function is to improve the water quality of the lake.

Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) public relations director Haniza Abdul Hamid said that the Eco-Fan maintenance was still under the Global Environment Centre (GEC) as it had not been handed over to the council.

GEC River Care coordinator Dr Kalithasan Kailasam said the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) funded the project to test the effectiveness of the Eco-Fan in a natural environment.

“The fan was initially tested at ponds in palm plantations in a controlled environment. If it works, we were going to hand it over to the MBPJ for maintenance.

“So far, we’ve only seen a slight improvement in the water quality,” he said.

He added that the contractor has been having problems getting parts to fix the pumps.

“The project ends on April 17 and we will wait for the final water quality report before making a decision in our next meeting,” he said.