hemananthani sivanandam AND yuen meikeng The Star 13 Aug 14;
PETALING JAYA: Do not raise your hopes as the showers over the weekend, although it helped to cool down the temperature, did not make any significant impact to the water level at the Sungai Selangor dam.
The dam, which supplies water to 60% of households in the Klang Valley, only showed a mere increase to 32.03% of its capacity compared with 31.9% last Friday.
A check on the Selangor Water Management Board (Luas) website showed that the dam received 3.56mm worth of rainfall, contributing to the increase in water level.
However, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) corporate communications and public affairs general manager Priscilla Alfred described the increase as “extremely small”.
“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,” said Alfred when contacted.
Malaysian Meteorological Department spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip said more rain was expected until this weekend, but it would merely be isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Dr Hisham said the wind had been very light and did not have any specific direction.
“During the southwest monsoon, the wind is supposed to flow from the southwest direction, but currently the wind is flowing from various directions.
“The weakening of the wind has helped to form more rain clouds, which brings more rain,” he said.
So far, the Selangor government has yet to decide on whether to start water rationing.
The state started water rationing in February when the dam level dropped to 37%, but currently the “critical” level has been reduced to 30%.
Previously, water rationing was imposed in stages in Selangor beginning Feb 25, affecting 6.7 million people.
This was following weeks of hot weather and a decline in water level at the dams.
The rationing was lifted on May 1.
The Selangor state exco in charge of infrastructure and public amenities Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi said yesterday there would not be any water rationing in the state for now.
He said the only restriction imposed was on carwash operators.
Meanwhile, on the hailstorm hitting several parts of the country, Dr Hisham said such occurrences were normal after a long period of dry weather, but noted that it did not happen often.
