PENANG Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has reiterated that the faulty barrage gate which caused water supply disruption in Penang on May 14 is located in Kedah.
The mishap caused the Sungai Muda river level to drop and prevented the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) from abstracting raw water from Sungai Muda.
As a result, some 400,000 water consumers in Penang suffered water supply disruption.
Chow, who is also the PBAPP chairman, said the Pengurusan Lembaga Sungai Muda (PLSM), which is a division of the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), issued an official letter to the Lembaga Sumber Air Negeri Kedah (LSANK) on the date of the incident.
“It stated the ‘sudden extreme drop in the level of Sungai Muda’ was caused by an unforeseen breakdown.
“The letter was addressed to LSANK in Kedah and not to any authority in Penang.
“PLSM’s letter to LSANK indicated that the opening and closing of the Sungai Muda barrage gates are operated through an automated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
“The system ‘opened’ a gate and left it open for 11 hours from 8.30pm on May 13. At 7.30am (the next day), PLSM alerted that the Sungai Muda river level dropped from 1.85m to 0.67m.
“PLSM had to manually close the barrage gate in Kedah to manage the situation at about 8.45am on May 14. And the Beris Dam in Kedah released water to raise the river level,” Chow responded to a journalist during a press conference after the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house at its office in Bayan Lepas today.
Chow also quashed a media report quoting Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor as ‘urging Penang to repair a faulty barrage gate at the Penang’s side of Sungai Muda which led to massive supply disruptions in southern Kedah and some parts of Seberang Prai mainland’.
“I hope the Penang government will take immediate action to repair the barrage gate on its side (of Sungai Muda),” Muhammad Sanusi was quoted in the news report.
Chow said the online media report, published on May 15, is wrong and misleading.
“The closing of the barrage gate was carried out by PLSM in Kedah and not in Penang; and not by PBAPP or any other authority in Penang.
“The PLSM letter also was addressed to LSANK in Kedah and not to anyone in Penang.
“Please do not try to confuse or mislead the people with false or fake news.
“The Kedah MB should get his facts right, issue a correct statement and publicly apologise to Penang and its people if he truly made that statement.
“And if he is misquoted in the news report, then he should address it with the media organisation and seek for a correction,” Chow said.
Chow added that there are two barrages located about 9km from the Sungai Muda river mouth and about 5km from PBAPP’s Lahar Tiang Intake in Seberang Perai.
“The 1.8m-barrage gate on Penang territory was built in 1973.
“The second barrage gate, 2.1m-high, is located in Kedah and was the one which ‘failed’ on the night of May 13.
“The incident in Kedah impacted 400,000 water consumers in Penang. That is a fact,” he said in detail.
In a related matter, Chow said the Penang water supply recovery level remained at 98% as of 2.30pm today.
“Some pipes to higher ground areas could not be fully pressurised due to high water demand (in general).
“However, PBAPP is optimising treated water production at the Sungai Dua water treatment plant and pumping as much water as possible to consumers in Seberang Perai and Penang island.
“Meanwhile, water tankers also are being despatched to areas without water supply,” he said.
Chow is happy to note that the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman Charles Santiago would be visiting Penang and Kedah this Thursday (May 18) to understand more about the water disruption.
“This is a good move by SPAN as I already urged the regulatory body in my press conference yesterday (May 15) to investigate the Sungai Muda water level incident,” said Chow.
Story by Riadz Akmal
Pix by Law Suun Ting
Video by Alissala Thian