Published: 2009/06/08 – The Star

CONSUMERS are advised to be prudent in using water in view of the dry spell ahead.

Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB) said in a statement that it was monitoring the raw water supply and its quality.

The company operates and maintains three dams in Selangor (Sg Langat Dam, Klang Gates Dam and Tasik Subang Dam) as part of the concession agreement to operate and maintain the 29 water treatment plants (WTPs) in Selangor.

The operation of the dams are crucial in ensuring sufficient raw water supply to treatment plants.

The Klang Gates Dam supplies raw water to the Bukit Nanas and Wangsa Maju plants while the Tasik Subang Dam supplies raw water to the North Hummock treatment plant.

The Sg Langat Dam does not supply raw water directly to the Sg Langat treatment plant but ensures adequate water for abstraction at the intake point through regulated release into Sg Langat.

The Meteorological Department has warned of the South-West Monsoon until September, whereby the weather is expected to be relatively drier and warmer compared with other periods for most part of the country.

Although rainfall is expected to be normal over Peninsular Malaysia and slightly below normal over East Malaysia, water operators have been instructed to monitor the situation closely.

PNSB monitors the reservoir level and water release daily at all the three dams.

Among the three dams, Tasik Subang Dam has had the lowest rainfall with monthly rainfall of 32.40mm only in May as compared with a mean monthly rainfall for May of 149.39mm (from 1996 to 2008).

As such, the storage capacity of Tasik Subang Dam is now down to 90.71%, from 98.86% in early May.

The current capacity of Tasik Subang Dam is expected to last for another 161 days (5.4 months) only should the dry spell continues.

The storage capacity of the other two dams still hold at 100% even though the total monthly rainfall for May for both the dams are also below the mean monthly rainfall for May for each dam.