Triggers in Johor water crisis

High and dry: Lack of water is causing the land at the Sungai Lebam dam in Kota Tinggi to be exposed and patchy.

JOHOR BARU: The failure in triggering rainfall by cloud seeding at the depleting Sungai Lebam and Sungai Layang dams as well as climate change are among the factors for the current water crisis in Johor.

While parts of Johor enjoyed rainfall in the past few weeks, there was no rain at the Sungai Layang dam in Pasir Gudang and Sungai Lebam dam in Kota Tinggi, said SAJ Holdings Sdn Bhd corporate communications head Jamaluddin Jamil.

He said the rainfall trend in Johor has been on the downward trend since last year, adding that the rainfall data recorded this year did not show any improvement.

“The lack of clouds in the area also caused the state government’s efforts to perform cloud seeding to be unsuccessful,” he said at a dialogue session with residents organised by the Pasir Gudang MCA division yesterday.

Jamaluddin hopes the water levels at the Sungai Layang and Sungai Lebam dams will see improvements once the ongoing RM4mil water transfer projects to pump water from nearby Sungai Tiram and Sungai Papan rivers are completed next month.

Pasir Gudang MCA division chief Tan Cher Puk proposed the formation of a committee consisting of SAJ, the Johor Water Regulatory Body and the Water Services Commission, to come up with a long-term solution to tackle the water issues in the state for the next 50 years.

“There is no point in playing the blame game because the people want to see results and solutions to the problem,” he said, adding that he had received more than 300 complaints from residents and businesses in the past week.

SAJ announced on Monday that scheduled water rationing would continue until Dec 15.

The exercise began in August where consumers would get water for a day after two days of dry taps.