GEORGE TOWN – Piped water was restored to almost all houses today – just a day before the Aidiladha celebration, here following the deadly floods in Gunung Inas, Baling on Monday which disrupted water supply in Penang.
The disruption was caused by the highly muddied waters, which flowed into the Sg Dua water treatment plant barely hours after the floods at Baling.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said he was informed that the entire state, with a few outlying pockets, should resume normal water supply by the end of the day after some 1.8 million consumers endured some form of water disruption in the past three days.
Chow told a press conference that water supply was slowly being restored in major localities after the Bukit Dumbar and Bukit Gedung pump stations in Bayan Lepas were activated for the southern part of the island.
Penang was bogged down by severe water disruption after the Sg Muda water intake/treatment plant in Butterworth grinded to a halt three days ago after muddied waters filled with debris and particles flowed into the main treatment intake, here.
The turbidity level of the raw water entering the plant had skyrocketed to three times more than normal levels, as the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) engineers detected such an abnormality for the first time.
Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor has refrained from commenting on suspicions among the Kupang township folk that land cleared for the proposed “world’s biggest Musang King durian farm” at Gunung Inas was the main culprit behind the torrid muddy floods.
The disaster also resulted in the death of three individuals.
A four-hour emergency halt at the plant had crippled water supply to mostly the southern part, where the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone is located.
In another development, Chow also launched the 13th edition of the George Town Festival (GTF) at the Hin Bus Depot at Gurdwara Road, here.
The festival – which captures the essence of culture, arts, and heritage, among other events – symbolises the outstanding universal values of Penang’s status as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
It has received an encouraging response from tourists and the public, following a two-year hiatus where it was only confined to virtual online platforms.
The cities of George Town and Melaka are among 1,121 of Unesco’s listed international heritage and monument sites.
This year’s GTF has about 80 events lined up from today until July 24.
Despite the poor turnout here today, Chow explained that it was because the organisers had also insisted on physical distancing amid the presence of Covid-19.
Hence, crowd control is one of the factors influencing GTF this year.
According to CovidNow, Penang recorded 121 Covid-19 cases yesterday, pushing the number of active cases to 697, of which 95% are home quarantined.
The death count from Covid-19 has now surpassed 2,000 with 2,006 fatalities, including one brought-in-dead last night. – The Vibes, July 9, 2022
