IPOH: The Perak government will not implement water rationing in the Kerian district as the water level at Bukit Merah dam has improved from 6.1m on Monday to 6.2m today.
State Public Utlities, Infrastructure, Energy and Water Committee chairman Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharudin said the improvement was due to intermittent rain in the area over the past few days.
"We will stick to our earlier statement that water rationing will only be implemented if the water level at Bukit Merah dam drops to 5.1m," he said after co-chairing a special meeting on the issue with State Secretary Datuk Seri Abdul Puhat Mat Nayan here today.
While acknowledging the proposal made by the National Water Services Commission (Span) on water rationing, he said the state government decided against it after receiving feedback from the Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID) and Perak Water Board (PWB).
During the meeting, he said they had also discussed the reports tabled by DID, PWB, Meteorological Department and the Agriculture Department.
Zainol said water from the Bukit Merah dam would only be channeled to the water treatment plants for domestic and industrial use.
"The supply for agricultural irrigation has been temporarily halted until the water level reaches the normal range of at least 7m," he said.
For the Bukit Merah dam, the water level is considered "critical stage one" when it drops below 7m while "crtitical stage two" when it reaches 6.7m and "critical stage three" when it breaches 6.4m.
The maximum level at the dam is 8.55m while the minimum, which should trigger the water rationing and other contigency measures, is at 5.1m.
Built in 1906, the Bukit Merah dam is located upstream of the confluence of Sungai Kurau and Sungai Merah and drained about 480 square kilometeres, with a storage capacity of 92.8 million cubic metres.