CLIMATE change continues to wreak havoc with Penang’s water supply as the level of its main source, the Sungai Muda, dipped below two metres in the last four consecutive days despite the northern region entering the monsoon period.
Penang Water Supply Corporation (Pbapp) chief executive officer K. Pathmanathan said the Muda Dam’s level in neighbouring Kedah was at 16.6% as of Sunday due to the lower than usual levels of Sungai Muda.
Pbapp has started taking contingency measures to ensure that supply to Penang is not drastically affected by the prolonged drought.
Pathmanathan said Pbapp is drawing down water from the Expanded Mengkuang Dam (EMD) in Seberang Prai to sustain water supply throughout the state.
The maximum drawdown capacity of the EMD is 600 million litres per day (MLD).
Pbapp has started drawing down an average of 41 MLD since Saturday to complement raw water extraction from Sungai Muda.
The raw water from the EMD and Sungai Muda is channeled to the Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant (WTP), Penang’s largest and most important WTP.
Treated water from this WTP is pumped to about 465,000 consumers throughout Seberang Prai as well as account holders on the island.
The daily EMD drawdowns ensure that the Sungai Dua treatment plant continues to produce an average 1,026.59 MLD of treated water.
The level of Sungai Muda at the PBAPP intake in Lahar Tiang, Kepala Batas has dropped below the 2.0m safe level recently for four consecutive days, from Thursday to Sunday.
Pbapp abstracted an average of 1,125.50 MLD of raw water from Sungai Muda last week, as compared to 1,196.13 MLD under normal circumstances.
The Muda Dam is one of the two dams in Kedah that releases water into Sungai Muda for use by Kedah and Penang.
The reported level of the other dam, the Beris Dam, was 82.4% on Thursday. The maximum effective capacity of the Beris Dam is 120 billion litres.
Kedah has the option to release more water from the Beris Dam to increase the level of Sungai Muda.
This measure will avoid any major issues at 14 WTPs in Kedah and the Sungai Dua WTP in Penang, said Pathmanathan.
Pbapp is operating on high alert and monitoring the status of the Muda River as this river is Penang’s primary raw water resource.
“We would also like to seek the understanding and cooperation of all consumers to use water wisely in Penang because the Sungai Muda level is low and the reserves of the Muda Dam have been depleted,” said Pathmanathan. - July 15, 2024.
