JOHOR BAHRU, Feb 17 — The Johor government has described allegations linking water supply disruptions in Pontian and Simpang Renggam to data centre development as untrue and baseless.
State Work, Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said no data centres receive water supply in Simpang Renggam and Benut, adding that the areas are not locations for such facility developments.
As such, he said the allegations, which have gone viral, connecting the scheduled water disruptions in the affected areas with data centre development, are untrue and constitute slander.
“Water supply for the Simpang Renggam and Benut areas is channelled through the Simpang Renggam Water Treatment Plant (LRA), which processes raw water from Sungai Ulu Benut, with support from the Machap Dam. The maximum capacity of this plant is 64 million litres per day (MLD).
“The ongoing scheduled water supply disruption is due to the depleted level of the raw water source as a result of the prolonged drought before this. Although it has started to rain, the river and dam water levels have yet to return to optimal levels,” he posted on Facebook today.
Mohamad Fazli said that to enable the Simpang Renggam LRA to operate at the full 64 MLD capacity using four pumps, the Sungai Benut intake level needs to exceed 4.90 metres (m).
“Currently, the water level is recorded at around 4.66m, which is still below the optimum operating level. This situation limits the full use of the pumps and affects the production of treated water, thus requiring the implementation of the scheduled water supply to ensure a fairer and more balanced distribution to users.
“As an urgent mitigation measure, the state government, together with the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), has implemented cloud seeding operations at the main catchment areas, including the Upper Layang Dam, Pulai Dam and Machap Dam, to increase the chances of rain and expedite the recovery of raw water levels,” he said. — Bernama
