GEORGE TOWN – The scheduled water cuts in Penang that were to begin today have temporarily been postponed to 11.30pm tomorrow, said the state water utility.
In a statement yesterday, Penang Water Supply Corp (PBAPP) said the matter was agreed upon after taking into account the requests of users in the affected areas who wanted more time before the implementation of Plan B for the diversion of the 600mm pipeline across Sg Perai.
“PBAPP agrees that this (longer downtime) will make it easier for all affected users,” according to the statement.
“We plan to provide at least 24 hours so that all 120,000 (affected) consumers have sufficient time to store enough water before implementing Plan B of the scheduled water disruption (600mm pipe diversion).”
Previously, PBAPP said the scheduled water supply disruption involved 120,000 user accounts in Penang’s Southwest district.
PBAPP said the water supply disruption was due to a large leak in the 1,350mm pipeline at the bottom of Sg Perai last Tuesday.
It explained that although the re-clamping works have been done since last Friday, the pipe was still leaking and was at risk of leaking again until diversion works were carried out to replace it.
“Due to the risk factor, Plan B was immediately implemented after all affected users received their water supply,” it said.
According to PBAPP, as at 6.30pm yesterday, a total of 109,000 of the 120,000 affected users had received their water supply.
It had said it would try to restore water supply to the remaining 11,000 affected users by last night or early this morning.
The leaking pipe at the bottom of Sg Perai last Tuesday was the third incident after incidents in December last year and on January 12.
Following this, the Penang government implemented a method of installing a temporary replacement pipeline across Sg Perai, which will work for at least eight months, while waiting for the permanent pipeline replacement to be completed. – January 29, 2024