PETALING JAYA: Dry days loom for the country as seven of the 43 dams in the peninsula have reached critical levels while one is at warning level.
While authorities have started cloud-seeding at the Bukit Merah dam in Perak due to its critical water level, data shows that there are six other dams in Selangor and Kedah which are also in trouble.
According to drought monitoring data by dam levels on the Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID) website, four of the dams at critical levels are in Selangor while two are in Kedah.
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The dams in Selangor – Langat, Sungai Selangor, Tasik Subang and Sungai Tinggi – are already in the red zone.
All four are water supply dams under the Selangor Water Management Authority.
As of yesterday evening, Langat had 204.21m of water, well below its usual full capacity of 220.96m.
Sungai Selangor was at 190m while its full capacity is 220m, Tasik Subang was at 34.75m (38.56m) and Sungai Tinggi was at 49m (59.5m).
The Langat dam is designed to supply 1,890 million litres of raw water daily to the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant in Hulu Langat, Selangor.
According to reports, the Langat dam and the Langat River system, including the Semenyih Dam, supply water to the Klang Valley and Putrajaya, covering areas such as Hulu Langat, Klang, Kuala Langat, Sepang, Petaling, Cheras and Kuala Lumpur.
The two dams in the red in Kedah – Muda and Ahning – fall under the Muda Agricultural Development Authority.
Muda was at 88.3m yesterday with a full capacity of 100.6m, while Ahning had 81.4m although its full capacity is 113m.
Muda and Ahning, which supply water to the many rice fields in the Muda agricultural area and Padang Terap, are at only about 15% of their balance storage.
“Balance storage” refers to the volume of water needed in a reservoir to smooth out fluctuations between water demand and constant supply.
According to DID, this storage acts as a buffer, holding excess water when supply is high or demand is low and releasing it when demand is high or supply is low.
Meanwhile, the Semenyih dam is in the orange zone, which is at the warning level before it dips into the critical zone.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the Central Disaster Management Committee chairman, said yesterday that if a water source is at a critical level, cloud seeding will be implemented proactively.
