Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government was considering several relief measures including installing water mains to the lake, deepening the lake and raising the mooring area.
Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of the High-Level Committee on Disaster Management, he said the Perak Government had applied to the Federal Government to declare Bukit Merah a disaster area.
Zahid said today’s meeting also discussed an application from the Perak Government to immediately resolve the problem in the Kerian district which faced a critical shortage of water for agriculture and daily consumption.
“These proposals will be scrutinised by the Technical Committee and we will act immediately,” he said, adding that the technical committee would be chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim.
Ahmad Zahid said the meeting was informed that the level of water at seven of the 41 dams in the country was at the critical stage, with the amount of water in storage at an alarming level.
He named these dams as Gemencheh in Negeri Sembilan; Timah Tasoh in Perlis; Bukit Merah in Perak and Lebam, Congok, Layang and Labong in Johor.
“Several immediate measures have been implemented, including supplying water to areas in need, with mobile pumps drawing water from water sources such as rivers, lakes, ponds and underground,” he said.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also the home minister, said the dam-level early warning system of the Meteorological Department and remote sensing facilities would be shared with all departments and agencies involved in resolving the water supply problem.
He also said that cloud-seeding would be continued although it had failed to produce rain due to the absence of clouds over the water catchments due to the El Nino phenomenon.
Ahmad Zahid said the Malaysian Armed Forces had been mobilised to send water with mobile tankers over the past three days, including in Chini and Pekan in Pahang and Dengkil in Selangor.
He also said that the meeting discussed the setting up of the National Water Balance System (NAWABS) as a long-term measure to improve the national system of water supply demand.
–BERNAMA