ISKANDAR PUTERI: While the peninsula’s northern states are being baked now, down south the heat will come a little later.
Johor is at high risk of experiencing a meteorological drought from June, with several areas expected to record rainfall deficits of up to 60%, said state works, transportation, infrastructure and communications committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh.
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According to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia), the prolonged dry spell is expected to affect parts of the west coast and southern Peninsular Malaysia, including Johor, particularly in July and August.
“The impact of the drought is already being felt in areas such as Lok Heng (Kota Tinggi), where the main raw water source at Sungai Ulu Sedili Kecil has reached critical levels, affecting about 4,037 consumer accounts,” Mohamad Fazli said at the state assembly sitting in Kota Iskandar yesterday.
The state government and the state’s water operators, Ranhill SAJ, have taken steps to ensure continued water supply, albeit in limited quantities, he said.
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“These include deploying water tankers, placing static water tanks in key areas, distributing 10,000 bottles of mineral water, and carrying out cloud seeding operations with the National Disaster Management Agency,” he added.
He said several short-term projects have already been implemented to improve water supply resilience in Lok Heng, including upgrading the water treatment plant, constructing tube wells and installing pumping systems to channel groundwater.
“Among the latest measures is the relocation of a desalination plant from Forest City to Lok Heng.
“The plant became fully operational on April 23 and has a capacity of two million litres a day.
“This allows saline water from Sungai Lukah, which can no longer be treated through conventional methods due to prolonged drought, to be processed and supplied to affected areas,” he said.
He added the desalination plant is now a permanent asset at the Lok Heng water treatment facility and is supplying treated water through the existing distribution system.
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For long-term planning, he said Ranhill SAJ is proposing to channel water from the Sungai Lebam water treatment plant to Lok Heng to stabilise supply.
He said current demands in the Lok Heng and Waha areas stand at about 5.9 million litres per hour under normal conditions, rising to 7.6 million litres per hour during peak periods.
“The proposed project involves building a pumping station near Bandar Penawar and installing a 19km pipeline, with an estimated cost of RM40mil,” he said.
He added that the final design and cost would be determined following detailed engineering studies to be carried out soon.
Mohamad Fazli was replying to Norlizah Noh (BN-Johor Lama) and Muszaide Makmor (BN-Sedili) at the Johor state assembly sitting yesterday who asked about measures taken by the state government to address water supply issues in their constituencies.
