KUCHING: The cloud seeding operation in Sarawak resumed with a focus on inducing rain over the reservoir of the Batang Ai hydroelectric dam in the Sri Aman division as the water has dropped to a critical level.
“It has reached emergency level 3,” Sarawak Energy’s vice-president for hydro, Jonny Wong Kwei Ji, told reporters as he witnessed the pre-flight preparations for the operation at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base here yesterday.
Wong said the water level was still going down and it was imperative to have rain.
The Batang Ai hydroelectric station, some 173km from Kuching, was commissioned in 1985 and is Sarawak’s first large hydroelectric project.
It has a reservoir area of about 90 sq km.
Sarawak Meteorology Department director Khairul Najib Ibrahim said the first seeding operation on Thursday basically failed to produce the expected result at Batang Ai.
“There was rain but not much,” he said.
He said this is because most of the seeded clouds were blown by a prevailing strong wind across the border to Kalimantan.
“On that day, the wind was quite strong. So the rain fell on the other side.”
Batang Ai is a stone’s throw from the border.
However, the result of the first seeding over the Bakun and Murum hydroelectric dams was more encouraging.
There was rain but not enough to push the water levels at both dams out of the “emergency level 1”.
The reservoirs of three hydroelectric dams are not water supply reservoirs. Their primary purpose is hydroelectric generation. However, water from the dams can contribute to downstream water supply that feeds the many water treatment plants along the river.
The only water supply dam in Sarawak is Bengoh in Bau, which supplies water to Kuching and the surrounding areas.
On Thursday, Sarawak Deputy Premier Datuk Douglas Uggah said the cloud seeding, which has now been extended to today, was to raise the water levels at the three dams and 13 catchment areas to prepare the state for an anticipated hot and drier October.
The seeding operation utilised the RMAF’s C-130 transport aircraft.
