GEORGE TOWN, April 8 — The Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) said today it will have 13 water tankers on stand-by during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season to avoid any unscheduled water supply interruptions in the state during the hot spell.
PBAPP chief executive officer K. Pathmanathan said the tankers are PBAPP’s “Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2024 Water Contingency Plan” as they projected high water consumption before and during the hot and dry festive season.
“In February, PBAPP recorded a high average water consumption figure of 927 million litres per day (MLD) in Penang,” he said in a statement released here.
He said 927 MLD is 50 MLD higher than the 877 MLD annual average for 2023.
“PBAPP is anticipating that water consumption during the “balik kampung” and Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive period, from April 7 to 14 may equal or exceed 927 MLD,” he said.
He said the 13 tankers including three jumbo tankers with a maximum capacity of 40,000 litres each will be on stand-by in Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS) and a few high ground and end-of-line (EoL) areas in Relau and Bukit Belah in the Southwest district of the island.
He said the water tankers were deployed together with 47 static water tanks, with maximum capacities of 2,000 litres each, during that period.
“If necessary, this deployment will be expanded with more tankers or extended over a longer period of time, in response to water demand,” he said.
He said other states in the Peninsular including Johor and Selangor are also implementing similar festival water contingency plans due to the dry weather conditions and respective water supply scenarios.
He advised consumers to use water wisely during the festive season as the state is still experiencing hot and dry weather which is depleting dam storage reserves.
As of April 7, the dams’ effective capacity is now at 34.1 per cent for Air Itam, 64.9 per cent for Teluk Bahang, 89.6 per cent for Mengkuang Dam, 38.9 per cent for Muda Dam in Kedah and 86.5 per cent for Beris Dam in Kedah.
He said the effective capacity of the Air Itam Dam is still under control due to the Air Itam Dam Action Plan in which 33 MLD of treated water is being pumped into the Air Itam areas from the Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant (WTP).
He said Mengkuang Dam is a strategic drought research dam that can only be drawn down when there is insufficient raw water from the Sungai Muda while the two Kedah dams release water into Sungai Muda during dry seasons.
“On April 7, the river level of Sungai Muda, Penang’s primary raw water resource, was 2.12 metres at PBAPP’s Lamar Tiang intake, which is above the two-metre safe level,” he said.
He said about 85 per cent of the 927 MLD treated water that was consumed by Penang’s 689,786 water consumers in February was abstracted from Sungai Muda and produced at the Sungai Dua WTP.
“For now, the overall water supply status in Penang is under control,” he said.
He said weather forecasts indicated that Penang is expecting higher rainfall in the coming three to four months due to a projected transition to a La Niña phenomenon and the arrival of the inter-monsoon season.
“However, PBAPP will continue to operate at a high alert status until actual rainfall increases the effective capacities of all the key dams that affect water supply in Penang,” he said.
He appealed to Penang consumers to reduce water consumption by 10 per cent for April, May and June until the inter-monsoon season arrives.
