Malaysia: Twice daily cloud seeding ops for Sungai Selangor dam

rahimy rahim The Star 14 Aug 14;

PETALING JAYA: Cloud seeding operations have begun over catchment areas for the Sungai Selangor dam with twice-daily runs since Aug 1.

State exco in charge of infrastructure and public amenities Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi said the operations, which were carried jointly by the Selangor water management board (Luas), Meteorological department and the air force, were carried out using salt or sodium chloride solution.

“Based on records, the amount of rain over the dam has improved to 181.65mm from 69.52mm in June and 73.05mm in July. This is a positive development,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

Other mitigation measures, added Dr Ahmad, included reducing the rate of release of water from the Sungai Selangor dam and the Sungai Tinggi dam from 700 million litres to 500 million litres daily.

The Sungai Selangor dam’s water level continues to hover near the critical level despite rain over the past few days, with water levels only increasing from 32.03% of the reservoir’s storage capacity on Tuesday to 32.10% yesterday, a mere increase of 0.07%.

Sungai Selangor supplies raw water that meets some 60% of the Klang Valley’s needs. The Sungai Selangor dam as well as six other dams in the state are managed by Luas.

The treatment of raw water is conducted by plant operators including Puncak Niaga and Sya­rikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd.

Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd is in charge of the water supply distribution systems in Selangor and the Federal Terri­tories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Malaysia Meteorological Depart­ment spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip said there would be isolated rain throughout the month as the country was facing the southwest monsoon, which typically brings hot and dry weather.

On Tuesday, the Selangor government had announced that water rationing would not be imposed.