Kelantan is not sinking, says Minerals and Geosciences Dept

KUALA TERENGGANU: No land subsidence has been reported in Kelantan in the past 15 years, says the Minerals and Geosciences Department.

"Based on the Department's monitoring throughout the years 2007 until 2022, in a period of 15 years, there was no land subsidence incident recorded in Kelantan that can be associated with the use of underground water," it said in a statement.

The department also denied that excessive groundwater extraction had caused the land areas in Kelantan to sink.

"Hydrogeological modelling study that has been carried out by the Department found that the safe yield for the groundwater well field in Kelantan to be at a rate of 406 million litres per day.

"The current groundwater pumping is at a rate of 198.2 million litres per day (48.2%), which is below the safe yield rate," it said.

The department said the groundwater level recorded from the year 1989 until 2018 also did not show any significant or sudden drop.

"Hydrography data from Guillemard Bridge Station, Tanah Merah from the year 1979 until 2018 also shows no significant decrease in river water level.

"There is no groundwater pumping for commercial or massive use recorded in Kuala Krai that can cause land sinking," it said.

The department which was the leading agency in governing groundwater resources also welcomed collaboration from various groups to monitor the country's groundwater to ensure its security and sustainability.

On Thursday (Nov 10), The Star reported that the use of groundwater to solve Kelantan's water woes was threatening to sink some parts of the state, which experts warned would result in more floods.

Dr Yong Chien Zheng said that his study in 2018 on the ground movement in the state had found evidence that parts of the state were sinking up to 4.22mm per year.

Based on 17 years of GPS data in 11 different locations, Kuala Krai had the highest subsidence rate.

He said although insufficient data made it difficult to pinpoint the main cause, there was a high correlation between subsidence – the sinking of land or buildings to a lower level – and groundwater extraction.

It was also reported that most Kelantanese had been turning to traditional ways of taking groundwater or "air boring", as they were sick of the constant water cuts and murky tap water.