GEORGE TOWN: Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang Sdn Bhd (PBAPP) is implementing five projects under the Raw Water Contingency Plan 2030 (RWCP 2030) to ensure the security of water supply for the state.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Jaseni Maidinsa said these five projects were key components of PBAPP’s RWCP 2030 and would produce 569 million litres per day (MLD), thus increasing the maximum design capacity from the current 1,599 MLD to 2,168 MLD.
“PBAPP plans to complete two upgrade projects at the award-winning Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant (LRA), Penang; build two new LRAs near the Mengkuang and Sungai Muda Dams, and begin exploring Sungai Perai as an additional source of raw water for Penang,” he said in a statement here today.
Jaseni said that last year, Penang’s water consumption was 860 MLD and the projects would help ensure Penang has a healthy reserve margin and avoid a water crisis until 2030.
“Projections from the independent water study completed in 2021 show that Penang’s water demand, may be driven by socio-economic factors, increased by 78.1 per cent (672 MLD) and will reach 1,532 MLD by 2030,” he said.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said that both Penang and Perak governments had agreed to refer the issue of raw water supply from Sungai Perak under the Sungai Perak Raw Water Distribution Scheme (SPRWTS) to the Ministry of Environment and Water (KASA) for a solution.
Apart from that, Jaseni said in 2019, PBAPP proposed the Penang Water Supply Initiative 2050 (PWSI 2050) to the Penang government as a water supply engineering roadmap to ensure water supply security for Penang until 2050.
He said PWSI 2050 had been revised several times to address scenarios where SPRWTS was further postponed or could not be implemented by 2030.
“Given the current SPRWTS scenario, PBAPP recommends seawater desalination in Penang to meet the demand for future raw water supply after 2030. As an island state surrounded by the sea, Penang may use desalination technology (similar to Singapore) to theoretically leverage the volume unlimited raw water for the future,” he said.
The SPRWTS project was proposed by PBAPP to utilise Penang’s second water source in Sungai Perak in meeting future water demand needs for Penang and northern Perak until 2025. — Bernama
