Water levels at four dams continue to drop

SEREMBAN: The hot days continue to sap away precious water from the four major dams as the authorities scramble to restore water supply to several affected parts in west Seremban where taps ran dry.

As of late yesterday, water supply to some 80% of the areas in parts of Sendayan, Rasah and Mambau had been restored.

Checks with Syarikat Air Negri Sembilan (Sains) revealed that the water level at the Sg Terip dam, which supplies treated water to most parts of Seremban, had fallen to 100.6m with the critical level being 94.6m.

The Kelinchi dam was at 199.5m (critical level 198.3m); Talang 148.8m (140.5m) and Gemencheh 99.9m (98m).

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan commended the state Natural Disaster Ope­rations Centre and Sains for their tireless efforts to restore supply in the affected areas.

“Some of these areas are still experiencing low pressure as it would take time for supply to be fully restored. But the situation is under control,” he said yesterday.

On Wednesday, Mohamad said up to 8,000 households in parts of west Seremban were affected after levels at Sg Batang Penar fell drastically.

He said yesterday that the situation in the affected areas was brought under control after the authorities managed to divert some 13 million litres of water from the Kuala Sawah treatment plant.

He said this was possible as the Kuala Sawah plant, which supplies treated water to Port Dickson, Rantau and Lukut, had excess water.

“The problem in parts of west Seremban started as we could not draw water from Sg Batang Penar which has almost dried up.

“However, we are confident that supply in parts of west Seremban would be fully restored within the next day or two,” he said.

Mohamad said the state Natural Disaster Operations Centre has also been activated and was coordinating efforts to supply water to the affected areas.

“We have tens of vehicles from Sains, the Seremban and Nilai municipal councils as well as the Fire and Rescue Department doing this,” he said.

Mohamad played down talk of a looming crisis as the recently completed Triang dam and the Ngor-ngoi treatment plants built at a cost of more than RM750mil would be commissioned by early next month.

He said the plant would be able to supply an additional 545 million litres of water a day once fully commissioned.

“Then, we will have excess water which we will be more than happy to sell to other states.”

Mohamad said he was, however, concerned about the situation at the Gemencheh dam which supplies water to Tampin, Gemencheh and Gemas.

“We are worried as the water level there is also falling rapidly. But if there is ever a shortage, we will speak to Syarikat Air Johor and supply water to the affected residents,” he said, adding that this was not a problem as there was a pipeline connecting both states.

Mohamad also advised the people not to panic.

“Although water rates in Negri Sembilan are among the lowest nationwide, I hope that consumers will not be wasteful as we do not know when it will rain again,” he added.