GEORGE TOWN: PBA Holdings Bhd
unit Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang (PBAPP) has no plans to build another dam in Penang to meet rising demand for water.
PBA and PBAPP chief executive officer Datuk Jaseni Maidinsa said although the group has no plans to build another dam, work on enlarging the existing dam is ongoing.
"We don't have any plans to build another dam; what we did was to enlarge the Mengkuang Dam to three times its previous size to ensure we can store more water," he told reporters after PBA's AGM in George Town on Tuesday.
He said once completed next year, the Mengkuang Dam in Seberang Prai Tengah will be 27 times the size of Air Itam Dam on Penang island.
Jaseni said the group wants to avoid any water rationing in the state and to achieve that, all the dams in the state need to be filled up by the year-end to face the Super El Nino weather phenomenon.
He said the group will continue to be vigilant to ensure sufficient raw water availability in all of Penang's dams as well as in Sungai Muda, Kedah, which contributes 80% of Penang's raw water.
"The alert level will only be deactivated when the effective capacities of the Air Itam and Teluk Bahang dams reach 60% and the effective levels of the Beris and Muda dams in Kedah are at 50%," he said.
Meanwhile, PBA chairman Lim Guan Eng said sales of water in 2015 increased 15.06% versus 2014.
"During the year under review, sales of water to 575,747 registered water consumers in Penang generated RM300.325 million in revenue for the group, compared to RM261.017 million in 2014," he said in a statement.
He added that other operating revenue contributed an additional RM11.245 million, with the group recording a profit before tax of RM44.77 million during the year under review.
The group reported a profit after tax of RM38 million for the year under review compared with RM24.76 million in 2014. - Bernama
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