Remember that one time, long, long ago (yesterday) when we reported Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) announcing 1.2 million people under its service parameters would go with either low or no water pressure? Yeah, well, you might want to sit down: the water supply company’s just revised its calculations, and now it’s 2.2 million people that will be getting water disruptions.
The affected consumers are going to have to put up with an intermittent water supply situation – two days with water, followed by two days without, and repeat – in an exercise that is expected to run until March 31.
The six affected areas – Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Gombak, Kuala Selangor and Hulu Selangor – will be divided into two zones.
Syabas technical development executive director V Subramaniam told the press today, “These two zones will take turns to receive water, two days with water, two days without water.”
The National Water Spervices Commission (SPAN) stated that the current dry spell has left seven dams in Selangor with low water reserves, with the Sungai Selangor and Klang Gates dams dropping to 47.57 per cent and 53.54 per cent respectively. Both are considered critical water levels.
To conserve water at these dams, the Selangor state government decided to cut the volume of raw water released to 200 million litres per day and 30 million litres per day respectively for Sungai Selangor and Klang Gates, prompting the expansion of water rationing.
With the nod from SPAN for Syabas’s water distribution plans, its chairman Datuk Ismail Kasim said that the water rationing exercise may end earlier if water levels in the two dams improve.
Ismail listed down several areas that would be exempt from the water rationing exercise, including the Kuala Lumpur city centre, the federal administration in Putrajaya, Selangor’s administration centre in Shah Alam and free trade zones.
The key logistics centres of Port Klang, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the Subang airport, as well as private and government hospitals will also be spared from water supply disruption during the water rationing exercise, he said.
Related: Syabas: low water pressure or none at all for 1.2 million people; Water crisis: cloud seeding hasn’t started yet
Photo: Reuters
Source: The Malay Mail Online
