Pahang spends RM60,000 daily to pump water into treatment plants

The Gambang Water Park management is prepared to shut down its water theme park operations temporarily in the event of a water crisis.

KUANTAN: The Pahang government spends RM60,000 a day to ensure a reliable supply of water at three water treatment plants at Lipis, Temerloh and Pekan following the drought brought on by the El Nino phenomenon.

State Secretary Datuk Seri Muhammad Safian Ismail said for the past two weeks the government had to incur expenditure on pumping water from other areas to ensure the water treatment plants had sufficient water supply.

"Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad (PAIP) had to fork out RM20,000 daily for each treatment plant to pump water from nearby rivers as the raw water intake is running dry," he said.

Two months ago, he said, the state government had applied for a RM27 million allocation from the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (MOSTI) to carry out cloud seeding to increase water level at the Pahang River basin, but to date they have not received any reply.

Safian said although water levels at all dams were still normal, cloud seeding was crucial especially at Pahang River basin areas to ensure water was flowing to the intake.

Nevertheless, he added there were no plans for water rationing as the situation was still under control.

Meanwhile, Gambang Water Park management was prepared to shut down the water theme park operations temporarily should the state government issue a notice, in a bid to save water.

Bukit Gambang Resort City assistant manager, Paris Koh said so far they have not received any news on the matter adding that the management would consider other alternatives if the water situation worsened.

Koh added that despite the hot weather, there was no significant increase in number of visitors to the theme park between February and April this year, compared to the corresponding period last year. - Bernama