GEORGE TOWN, Feb 2 — Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) will be submitting a proposed Air Itam Dam Action Plan 2024 (AIDAP2024) to increase the dam’s effective capacity to 50 per cent by the end of April.
The effective capacity of the Air Itam Dam is currently at 34.6 per cent.
PBAPP chief executive officer K.Pathmanathan said the concept of the plan is to draw down less water from the dam than the average inflow of raw water into the dam daily.
“PBAPP is planning to reduce the daily drawdowns from the Air Itam Dam to the Air Itam Water Treatment Plant (WTP) by 75 per cent from 44 million litres of water per day (MLD) to 11 MLD,” he said in a statement here.
He said the accumulated deposits will total about 360 million litres over three months which could potentially increase the effective capacity of the dam by about 15 per cent.
He said the Air Itam Water Treatment Plant (WTP) produces 50 MLD of treated water to meet the needs of about 30,000 consumers in its service area.
“It is presently drawing 44 MLD of raw water from the Air Itam Dam as well as six MLD from Main’s Intake and Tat’s Intake,” he said.
However, the success of AIDAP 2024 is dependent on three factors, he said.
The first is the sustainability of the six MLD raw water intake from Main’s Intake and Tat’s Intake.
The second is that 33 MLD treated water support from the Sungai Dua WTP in Seberang Perai which will be re-pumped at the Padang Brown Pumping Station into the service area of the Air Itam WTP.
“This will make up for the 33 MLD shortfall in drawdown from the Air Itam Dam,” he said.
He said there will also be cloud seeding operations to induce sufficient rainfall in the water catchment areas of the five intakes involved: Balik Pulau Intake, Side Stream Intake, Sungai Pinang West Intake, Main’s Intake and Tat’s Intake.
“PBAPP will check and verify all the facts and figures as well as reconfirm the engineering viability of the AIDAP 2024 proposal before presenting it to the Penang State Government for approval,” he said.
