A RM500mil Water Supply Fund will be set up to address water supply issues in the country.
This comes as the country’s most populous state Selangor was hit with weeks of water cuts and rationing after treatment plants were forced to stop due to pollution in rivers that supply raw water to the state. The cuts affected over three million state residents.
Water groups foresee the fund going into adding more service reservoirs and upgrading water treatment plants in the event of a water crisis.
The Government also continued its RM650mil annual allocation for grants and loans under the 11th Malaysia Plan to fix issues like leakages.
The allocations for the Water Supply Fund was a win for water groups, but Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (Awer) president S. Piarapakaran said the fund has to be placed in the right hands for it to make a real positive impact.
He wants the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) to handle the fund rather than other ministries like the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, saying that the commission was better informed on how to use the money more wisely.
“SPAN is the regulator of the water services industry and this fund should be utilised for emergency capital expenditure like upgrading treatment facilities (either capacity increase or adding pollution stripping facility).
“It can also be used to boost water supply reserve margin by increasing service reservoirs in sub-urban and rural areas,” he said.
A family business grows beyond its humble beginnings making ice cream makes Ipoh proud with its impressive reach
TUCKED amidst various factories in the Jelapang Industrial Estate, Ipoh, is local ice cream maker, Wonderful Creamery Sdn Bhd is well-known for its offers free ice cream three times a year.
Wonderful Creamery would not have been established in the 1980s, if it was not for a simple suggestion by the founder’s friend.
Wonderful Creamery’s operations manager, Suzanne Kew said, back in the 1970s, when her family was running a business packaging spices for herbal soup, her father’s friend put forward the idea.
“The suggestion interested my father greatly and he made a trip to Italy to learn about the technology involved in making ice cream.
“In 1979, he opened a small factory in a shoplot in Pasir Puteh, to make ais krim potong with a paid-up capital of RM20,000.
“At that time, ais krim potong was a cottage industry, and we used traditional tools to produce it. But my father employed modern methods, filling up pipes with ice cream mix and immersing them in brine.
“Although it was done manually, it was considered industrial-scale production, churning out up to 300 sticks an hour,” said Suzanne, adding that Wonderful Creamery was considered a pioneer in the Perak region for the method at that time.
With the success of the ais krim potong business, Suzanne’s father opened his first large factory in 1986 in First Garden, Ipoh, with a paid-up capital of RM500,000 and purchased the first automation machine which made stick ice-cream, costing him RM200,000.
“The machinery was able to produce 1,500 sticks per hour and greatly expanded the range of Wonderful Creamery’s products. The machine was also less labour-intensive, requiring only three workers to operate.
“The range of products did not end there as the company purchased another cone and cup machine from Italy in 1997, which cost RM70,000. It later bought an improved version in 2002, doubling production speed,” said Suzanne.
She said her parents would often get her and her siblings to help out at the factory during school holidays.
“We were taught the importance of hard work as we helped pack the ice cream,” she said, adding that the products were mostly distributed through Ipoh supermarkets such as Billion.
From its single lot in Jelapang, the company has now expanded into three factory lots with cold room facilities, a production line, raw material storage and packaging area.
“Our distribution network has also grown gradually and eight years ago, we started exporting to countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Macau, Myanmar, Cambodia and China.
“Part of the growth can also be attributed to the setting up of a special maintenance department that ensures our production machinery runs smoothly.”
The department is headed by her brother, factory manager James Kew, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering and a masters in food technology.
“It is vital to ensure the machine remains reliable and reduce downtime. Downtime affects our production greatly as we need to work longer hours to meet large orders.
“Vital components such as air compressors have been purchased for the machines and the department has been able to reduce up to 30% of the company’s electricity cost with proper upkeep of the machines,” said Suzanne, adding that it ensured production was smooth.
With a total staff of 70, Wonderful Creamery has been able to produce up to 30 metric tons of ice cream a day.
“Our production includes the capacity to make up to 3,000 sticks of ais krim potong per hour, a 10-fold increase since the 1970s.
