The Ingenieur Vol 57 January-March 2014 The Ingenieur Vol 57 January-March 2014 | Page 54

INGENIEUR
drop of the water levels of
the Pedu and Muda dams
dropping to critical levels,
resulting in cancellation of
the off-season rice crop. In
1998, an El Nino related
drought also caused severe
water stress in Kedah
and Penang, and caused
severe water rationing in
Kuala Lumpur and Petaling
Jaya for many months. In
2002, drought destroyed
thousands of hectares of
paddy in Perlis and many
areas also suffered water
stress. The recent flooding
in Pahang has almost
paralysed the town centre
and surrounding areas when
there is no electricity and
water supply in most parts
while the flooding in the
state, Johor, Terengganu
and Kelantan has seen over
37,127 people evacuated.

be the main challenge for
water operators in Malaysia.
• Rapid Urbanisation. The
availability of raw water
in Malaysia is generally
not an issue as majority
of the potable water is
tapped from rivers which
are fed by abundant annual
rainfall. However, problems
arise because rainfall is
not uniformly distributed
over the year temporally
and spatially, base flow is
being reduced due to rapid
urbanisation, supply does
not meet demand in major
cities, weak distribution
systems and water becoming
polluted and rendered less
suitable for the intakes
when passing through the
urban centres.
It is vital that as cities
develop,
infrastructural
facilities
for
water
management should be kept
at par with other facilities
so that city dwellers need
not be worried about water
shortages, poor quality and
supply interruptions since
direct access to sources for
them is almost unthinkable.
However city dwellers are
responsible for ensuring that
effluent discharged from
city waste water treatment
and other discharges are
of
“premium”
effluent
standard.
• Climate Change. Droughts
occurred in 1977 and 1978,
devastating the paddy crop in
most of the irrigation areas
in Northwest Peninsular
Malaysia. In 1982 and
1991, drought resulted in