SHAH ALAM, 10 Apr: The dams in Selangor can achieve the target level of 55 percent of the mitigation measures undertaken by the State Government is managed well, said the Director of the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS), Md Khairi Selamat.
He said that one of the mitigation measures if the reduction of the water release from the Sungai Selangor dam by 800 million litres per day (MLD) from the normal release rate of 1,800 MLD to 1,000 MLD, while the abstraction of water by the Bukit Nenas water treatment plant (WTP) from the Klang Gates dam is limited to 100 MLD.
“To help decrease the rate of water release from this dam, pumping of pond water near Sungai Selangor, the Kampung Hang Tuah pond, will be carried out to increase the rate of water flow from the river.
“By calculation the amount of released water from both these dams, the life expectancy of the Sungai Selangor dam is estimated to last for 71 days, and 88 days for the Klang Gates.
“In addition to that, from 1 to 4 April, cloud seeding operations, in collaboration with the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) and an appointed private company, were carried out to increase rainfall in dam catchment areas,” he said in a press conference.
Md Khairi said that although the 5 percent target is quite high, with the measures taken, it is believed to be achieved.
He said despite receiving heavy rainfall exceeding 20 millimetres (mm) on 3 April, most areas were downstream areas and not catchment areas, and only resulted in a small increase to the dam capacity.
The State Government announced that the water rationing will be stopped when the Sungai Selangor dam reaches 55 percent of its capacity, an equivalent to 126.5 million cubic metres (Mm3).
Rainfall is needed to achieve that capacity, based on the current level of catchment of over 40.7 Mm3, and the duration taken is dependent on the rainfall received each day.
“If we rely on the current situation to reach 55 percent, we need to have rainfall from between 200 to 300 mm per month. The rainfall received in January was 100 mm, two mm in February and in March, it was less than 50 mm.
“The cloud seeding operation will continue with more intensive focus on the Sungai Selangor and Klang Gates reservoir catchment areas, as well as other dams, from 31 May, depending on the suitability of the weather by MMD,” he said.
As of yesterday, the capacity of seven reservoirs in Selangor were below 70 percent; the Klang Gates at 53.89 percent, Langat (49.47 percent), Sungai Selangor (37.31 percent) and Sungai Tinggi (61.29 percent).
Recently, the State Government announced the Hybrid Off River Augmentation System (HORAS), a long-term plan to address the shortage of water supply and is expected to be completed in July next year.
The project is being developed at a former mine, with an area of 235 hectares, in Bestari Jaya, and is able to supply up to 600 MLD of water, in addition to the development of a downstream reservoir which is capable of supplying up to 3,000 MLD of raw water.
The public has been advised to conserve water and use it prudently.
