SHAH ALAM, 14 Feb: The Selangor Water management Authority (LUAS), together with the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) will conduct cloud seeding to increase the catchment quantity of the Sungai Selangor Reservoir.
The Director of LUAS, Md Khairi Selamat, said that the implementation will be done after receiving confirmation from the MMD, based on comments received in a daily basis.
He said that at this time, the execution of cloud seeding is not suitable to be carried out because it is too hot and dry.
“As a preparatory measure and to avoid the dam capacity from decreasing even more, we will conduct cloud seeding anytime.
“However, at this moment, the weather is hot and dry, so it will not be effective if done,” he said when contacted by Selangor Kini.
Md Khairi said that LUAS is considering other initiatives, including to channel water from former mines to the river to reduce the rate of water release from dams.
Based on records, the Sungai Selangor Dam can accommodate a water capacity of 235 million cubic metres.
To this day, the capacity of the dam is at 56.28 percent; 129.45 million cubic metres.
The water level of the dam began to fall on 20 January at the rate of 68.42 percent, resulting in the situation, which is seen as unconventional according the trend of annual rainfall.
This is caused by the current situation, which is very hot and dry, and the little amount of rain at the Sungai Selangor catchment area.
The water release of dams is to increase the water level of the river to enable water to be extracted in the first intake to be treated by water treatment plants and supplied to consumers.
