Recent Penang water disruptions could have been minimised

By Chuah Chong Lai

When we experienced water disruptions in some parts of Penang recently, the authorities were quick to tell us about their water infrastructure expansion plans.

But the recent disruptions could have been minimised with proper management of existing resources and infrastructure.

How? The current capacity of treated water reservoirs and the hundreds of large water storage tanks throughout the state should have been enough for at least one day’s reserve. Then there is the 24-hour reserve in storage tanks at the consumers’ own premises (though some consumers have bypassed this) and at apartment blocks.

In mainland Penang, the Mengkuang Dam, which can hold 86 billion litres of water, is able to pump 300 million litres per day to the Sungai Dua water treatment plant, in case of any shortfall.

The Sungai Dua plant, which can treat about 1,000 litres of water a day, supplies about 80% of the state’s treated water in mainland Penang and the southwest district of Penang Island every day.

So, even with the recent low levels of water at the Muda River, the Sungai Dua plant was able to produce 600-650 million litres daily, with the help of the 300 million from the Mengkuang Dam.

Add the drawdowns from the two other dams – the 2.1bn-litre Air Itam Dam and the 18.2bn-litre Teluk Bahang Dam – supported by the nine treatment plants around the state, Penang should have been able to muster an additional few hundred million litres of treated water daily.

Apart from the Sungai Dua plant, the other water treatments plants include the ones at Batu Ferringhi, Air Itam, the Botanic Garden waterfall, Guillemard and Sungai Pinang.

The combined supply of the treatment plants – even if the Sungai Dua plant produced less – could have come close to meeting the daily consumption of about 850 million litres for the entire state. After all, the designed capacity of the nine treatment plants, including the Sungai Dua plant, is 1,600 million litres per day.

Only four years ago, Penang boasted it had a treated water reserve margin of 33% – the highest in Malaysia.

So, were the recent major water disruptions avoidable? In my opinion, yes.

Let’s look at planning. For any project to be approved by the local city council, it needs feedback from the Penang water authority, PBAPP. The pre-condition is that each consumer should have a minimum of one-day reserve storage.

Then there are the treated water storage sites. The major treated water storage sites can be found at Bukit Dumbar (four treated water reservoirs), the free trade zone area, and hundreds of storage tanks like those at Island Glades and Sungai Ara. All factories have their minimum storage for their processes.

This supply of treated water at these storage sites and tanks should have been able to tide the state over a temporary source shortfall, if not for 48 hours at least 24 hours, and prevented immediate disruptions.

This provision for storage resources and their optimisation had been practised for decades – which was why we never had serious water disruptions until recently.

We now see the Penang state government talking about its expansion plans to increase the ability to draw down water from the Mengkuang Dam from 300 million litres per day to 1,000 million litres to supply the Sungai Dua treatment plant.

It has also talked up its future improvements to increase treated water supply for the entire state by 2030, but what about now?

Why not use what we have now and manage it properly for the sake of the people? [The recent shortage also raises serious questions about how the state intends to supply water to the 2,300-acre “Silicon Island” – its dubious mega-reclamation project off southern Penang Island.]

Please, no more talk about history and past glories and no more excuses. Buck up and solve the shortcomings and bottlenecks now.

I invite constructive criticisms and queries about the facts and figures. You may post comments citing the reasons for the disruptions and challenge my observations. But please no silly name-calling and avoiding the questions I raised.

Chuah Chong Lai, who has spent 50 years of his working life in the construction industry in Penang, is gravely concerned about what the future holds for Penang and its people

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

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