PETALING JAYA, April 24 — The Selangor executive council has approved RM10 million to pump water into the Sungai Selangor dam from former mining pools nearby in a bid to raise the dam’s water level.

The allocation would be used to purchase high capacity pumps, said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim yesterday following his announcement a day earlier that the state was looking into alternative water sources to arrest the state’s water woes.

The Sungai Selangor dam, which supplies water to some 60 per cent of consumers in the Klang Valley, is at 38.97 per cent, some 20 per cent lower than the safe level.

“The infrastructure will also be used for pumping water into the Sungai Selangor dam even when it has reached the control level to prepare for the dry season from end of May until September,” said Khalid.

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He said if the results prove satisfactory, the state government would review the water rationing exercise that had implemented since March. Water rationing was initially scheduled to end on April 30 but Khalid had indicated that it could be extended.

Khalid also said that though the water levels at six other dams in Selangor had increased above 50 per cent, they only provided water supply to a small number of users in the Klang Valley.

“We hope the people would bear with us and give us their trust as we resolve the problems, including our attempt to plan ahead in ensuring sufficient raw water for the coming dry season,” he said.

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He said the state government would conduct a press conference every two days to give updates on the raw water status, starting this Friday.

Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos Mamit said Selangor needs to reassess its use of Thailand’s Royal Rainmaking Technology for cloud seeding.

He pointed out that Selangor did not have a proper dam system to contain the water resulting from the technology.

On the proposal to use underground water, Dawos said not all water reserved in aquifers was suitable because they might contain heavy metals like arsenic that were poisonous to people besides causing floods due to the ground works.

He said a comprehensive study would be conducted by the Minerals and Geoscience Department under the 11th Malaysia Plan to test the usability of groundwater as an alternative source.