Malaysia: More cloud seeding ops this week

New Straits Times 17 Apr 14;

CYBERJAYA: Cloud seeding operations will be intensified in Selangor, mainly over Sungai Selangor, for the rest of the week, said the National Water Services Commission (SPAN).

Its chairman, Datuk Ismail Kassim, said continuous high-intensity rain would help resolve the water crisis.

He said the water rationing exercise would continue until the end of this month before the commission decides whether to stop it.

"We will monitor the weather condition, the amount of rainfall and improvement of water level in dams, which has so far shown no improvement," he said at SPAN headquarters here yesterday.

Ismail said if the situation improved by the end of this month, they might reduce rationing.

He said the Sungai Selangor dam's water problem began even before the start of the year, with its water level recorded at slightly above 205m before it drastically dipped to below 190m at the end of March.

For the same period last year, the water level remained at about 220m and only gradually dipped from mid-June.

Span chief executive officer Datuk Teo Yen Hua said they would resort to pumping water from Sungai Semantan through the Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer Project (Tunnel) into the Langat treatment plant to ensure that the plant continued to operate.

Measures to curb water woes
THARANYA ARUMUGAM AND BALQIS LIM New Straits Times 17 Apr 14;

CRITICAL SITUATION: 3 mitigation plans to kick off by early next year, says SPAN

CYBERJAYA: THE Federal Government is ready to come in to implement immediate mitigation projects that will give the millions affected by the ongoing Selangor water woes some reprieve.

National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman Datuk Ismail Kassim, in describing the current situation as "critical", said three mitigation plans were expected to kick off by early next year.

The short-term measures, he said, would aid in mitigating the issue while waiting for the Langat 2 project to take off by 2017.

He said the Federal Government had allocated RM121 million for the three projects and was willing to come up with a loan facility for Selangor to implement the projects.

The first mitigation plan will be the transfer of raw water from Negri Sembilan to Selangor through an underground pipeline connection in Nilai.

The RM35 million project involves the Triang dam that will supply water to the Ngoi-Ngoi treatment plant.

The Triang water supply scheme will produce 454 million litres of water per day (MLD).

Another water treatment plant will be built in Ngoi-Ngoi and the water will be sold to the Federal Government.

Ismail said the second mitigation plan involved a RM37 million upgrading work of the existing Langat treatment plant.

"The plant is designed to treat 386 MLD of water.

"However, Puncak Niaga Bhd has been overloading the plant up to 500 MLD.

"The government will be upgrading the plant design to ensure it can produce 500 MLD of water to cater to increasing demand," Ismail added.

Meanwhile, the third mitigation plan, which costs RM40 million, was to upgrade several Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) water pumps to reduce the risk of the pumps breaking down.

"The Selangor government has agreed to all three plans and the authorities are working closely with the Federal Government to expedite the mitigation projects," he said, adding that the plans, mooted last year, were now in the planning stage.

Ismail said that by 2025, Langat 2 would be unable to sustain demand.