The rain we’ve been experiencing over the weekend might have helped clear the dust from the air and cooled us off a little, but it hasn’t added much to our usable water supply.
The Sungai Selangor dam, which supplies water to 60% of the Klang Valley’s households, showed an increase of only 0.14% over the weekend, to register at 32.03% capacity up from 31.9% capacity last Friday.
According to the Selangor Water Management Board (Luas), this translates to a meagre 3.56mm worth of rainfall received by the dam.
Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) corporate communications and public affairs general manager Priscilla Alfred said, “Only constant increase and frequent rain will help in the long run.
“At the moment, we are able to manage, but should the dry season continue without any rainfall, we will certainly have problems.”
Dr Hisham Mohd Anip of the Malaysian Meteorological Department told The Star Online‘s Hemananthani Sivanandam and Yuen Meikeng that while more rain was expected until this weekend, it would only come in the form of isolated afternoon thunderstorms.
The Selangor state government has yet to decide whether or not to restart water rationing exercises.
The last round of water cuts in late February saw more than 6.7 million people in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya being affected by water shortages. The water rationing exercise ended on May 1.
So far, only car wash operators in Selangor have been hit with water restrictions, although the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) is considering water cuts to be imposed on golf courses, swimming pools and other businesses which consume vast amounts of treated water to operate.
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