Another water cut for some Penang island residents

BUTTERWORTH: Penang island must face another water cut, this time affecting 120,000 homes in the southern end of the island, for work to replace a faulty submerged pipe crossing Sungai Prai.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said no date had been fixed yet but the work, which would take about 16 hours, must be completed by Feb 2.

He said the water supply would resume gradually within a day. So far, he said that about 50% of the work to lay the pipe had been completed.

“Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) has planned the water supply interruption to connect the replacement twin 600mm pipes at Sungai Prai to replace the leaking 1.35m underwater pipe, installed between 1997 and 1998,” he told a press conference on a site visit to Ampang Jajar here yesterday.

Chow said places that will be affected include the end-of-line in the supply grid like Relau, Sunway Cassia in Batu Maung and Balik Pulau in the southwest district of the island.

“We appeal to everyone to understand the situation and we plan to execute the final portion of the work at a time that will minimise interruptions as much as possible.”

He added that the water supply interruption details will be presented to the state executive council on Wednesday.

He also said the twin 600mm replacement pipes were an interim solution to do away with the leaky old pipe crossing under Sungai Prai for six to eight months and allow construction of a permanent pipe with a diameter of 1.35m across the top of the river.

“As of right now, PBAPP is incurring a leak of 154 million litres per day (MLD) from that pipe.“With the commissioning of the twin 600mm pipes that will run along the Ampang Jajar bridge, that underwater pipe will be decommissioned,” he said.

After this project, the state will proceed to divert three other riverbed pipes along the same river.

PBAPP chief executive officer K. Pathmanathan said that the construction of the temporary pipes will cost RM1.6mil, while the permanent pipe across Sungai Prai will cost about RM5mil.

This pending water cut comes on the heels of the state recovering from a scheduled water cut last week.

An estimated 590,000 account holders of PBAPP were affected by the water disruption from Jan 10 to 14. Fortunately, works were completed ahead of schedule and water supply was restored in most places much earlier than anticipated.