BUTTERWORTH: Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang (PBAPP) will invest another RM1.115bil over four years under the Water Contingency Plan 2030 (WCP 2030) to ensure the sustainability of clean water supply.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and PBAPP chairman said the investment was to ensure a clean water supply for 1.74 million Penangites as water usage in the state continues to rise.
"PBAPP has invested RM69.15mil to implement WCP 2030 and will add another RM1.115bil over the next four years to carry out six more projects to address a 10% hike in water usage.
"For the first half of this year water usage was 887 million litres per day (MLD), an increase from 843 MLD in 2019,” he told reporters after launching Package 12A at the Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant (LRA) here on Friday (Sept 20).
Chow said the six projects under WCP 2030 include the installation of a 13km pipeline with a 1.8m diameter from the Sungai Dua LRA to Butterworth and a 3.9km pipeline from Macallum to the Bukit Dumbar Water Pond and Pump House on the island.
He said the next project involves building a new LRA with a capacity of 114 MLD to utilise part of the raw water reserves from the expanded Mengkuang Dam in Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) and building Sungai Kerian LRA to produce an additional 114 MLD of treated water for supply in Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS).
According to Chow, two more projects include implementing the Sungai Perai Water Supply Scheme with a capacity of 136 MLD in SPT, which involves pre-treatment works to use nearby rivers as an additional raw water source and developing a new Sungai Muda LRA to produce 114 MLD of treated water for supply in Seberang Perai Utara.
"These projects demonstrate the ongoing commitment of the state government and PBAPP to ensure Penangites get their supply of clean water,” he said.
On Package 12A, Chow said the project could increase Penang’s water treatment capacity by 114 MLD starting this month, adding that it features a new water treatment module within the Sungai Dua LRA, built in response to the rising demand for water.
He said the treatment plant is the largest and most important in the state, supplying treated water to approximately 465,000 consumers every day.
He added that the Package 12A project began in March 2022 and was fully completed and operational on Sept 5. - Bernama
