Mohd Farhaan Shah, The Star/ANN AsiaOne 17 Sep 15; The Star
PASIR GUDANG - Heavy rain has helped raise the water level at the critically low Sungai Layang dam.
Syarikat Air Johor Holdings (SAJ) network and distribution department chief Anuar Abdul Ghani said that following downpours lasting for several hours in the past few days, the water level at the dam had risen to 18.87m.
"It is good news to us. We hope more rain will fall in the next few days and help boost the water level further," he said.
Before the rain, the level at the dam stood at 12.9m, way below the critical threshold of 23.5m.
Anuar said the phenomenon was due to global climate change, which also saw decreasing water level during the same period last year.
"We have been seeing a slight change in the amount of rainfall over the last two years. The prolonged hot spell this time around caused a significant drop in the dam level," he added.
SAJ has come up with a short-term measure to manage the problem by channelling water from Sungai Tiram into Sungai Layang. About 20 million litres will be pumped into the dam each day.
"This project is expected to take place over the next two months," he said during a visit to the Sungai Layang dam near Kong Kong here yesterday.
The normal level at the dam is about 27.3m, with a daily output of 318 million litres to 580,000 accounts, including schools, hospitals and industrial operators here and in several parts of Johor Baru.
Anuar said the dam's critical level had caused output to drop to 230 million litres a day, which was why SAJ introduced rationing to ensure the dam did not run dry.
Of the volume, about 100 million litres are channelled to factories in the area with the balance going to the public.
