Replacement of valves completed, restoration of water supply in Penang begins

GEORGE TOWN: Works to replace two 1.2m control valve units which are leaking at the Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant (WTP), near here and water works and preventive maintenance projects at 22 other locations were fully completed on Wednesday (Jan 10) night.

Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) chief executive officer Ir. K. Pathmanantan said all the water works planned at Sungai Dua WTP and 22 other locations were ahead of schedule and water supply restoration had started at 11pm on Wednesday.

"Water supply is being normalised in stages today for 197,025 water consumers which is 33% of the 590,000 affected users in Seberang Perai and stage one needs to be completed by 6am on Friday (Jan 12) as scheduled.

"Level one restoration is not affected by the incident in Sungai Perai because Sungai Dua WTP is pumping water to level one restoration users through other main pipelines," he said in a statement on Thursday (Jan 11).

He said stage two was expected to be implemented starting at 6.01am on Friday where PBAPP aimed to normalise water supply to 495,065 consumers which was 84% of the 590,000 affected users in Seberang Perai and parts of the island.

Pathmanathan said the success of stage two as scheduled, depended on restarting operation of the damaged section on Sungai Perai underwater pipeline.

He said PBAPP was working hard to complete the emergency repair works of Sungai Perai today and would continue to provide updates on the progress of the work.

"Work is being carried out in Sungai Perai after it was delayed last night due to a technical problem where one of the clamps specially designed to be placed over the 1.35m long hole on the pipeline could not be properly installed," he said.

He said the diving operation was suspended and a heavy crane was brought in and used to lift the unsuitable clamp for on-site modifications.

"This is the fastest engineering solution with the lowest risk of long delays and commercial diving teams are scheduled to lock the modified clamps in place on the damaged pipeline today," he said.

Earlier, PBAPP announced that approximately 590,000 consumers, including non-domestic ones, would experience scheduled water disruption for 96 hours starting at 6am yesterday until 6am on Jan 14 to allow for the replacement of two valve units at the Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant as well as other ancillary work at 22 locations throughout Penang.

However, PBAPP expects at least 101 areas in the Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) and Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) districts, would receive water supply after 48 hours while a total of 157 areas involve SPT, Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS) as well as Northeast and Southwest districts on the island would start receiving water supply after 72 hours. - Bernama