Kelantan is one of the states in Malaysia where residents face frequent water cuts due to the low water supply.
While the residents may have grown used to facing water cuts, the lack of water can lead to some serious danger as 6 houses in the state were recently burnt down, after a delay in fire fighting due to a water shortage.
Meanwhile, the Kelantan Deputy MB Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said that the state has water in excess, but is unable to meet demands as it has no facilities to store it.
According to Astro Awani, this came after the state government held by the Islamist party PAS was criticised over an RM7 billion water reservoir project, where Mohd Amar said it is essential for the state to store and distribute the water from underground source of rainwater.
“In Kelantan, our water exceeds our need. We have it under the ground, in our rivers, rainwater, they are all in excess, but we can’t store it, we don’t have an appropriate place.”
“We have a lot of underground water, more than we need. But we don’t have enough treatment plants,” he said.
Mohd Amar said the state chooses to use underground water over river water because rivers in the state are muddy.
He explained that water from underground only looks cloudy after chlorine treatment due to its high iron content. “It’s not dirty water, but clean and safe water to drink but this is what we have to deal with,” he added.
“If we make a reservoir pool, we can store water and from it we can drain it to the necessary areas.”
Mohd Amar also said that the Ministry of Environment and Water Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Amn has approved the state’s proposal to build Kelantan’s largest water reservoir in Machang.
He said the project was submitted 2 years ago and was included in the 12th Malaysia Plan this year. However, due to the rising building materials and the current economic state, the cost of the reservoir has bloated to at least RM7 billion.
“In 2022, the financial need for this project is increasing because we see the demand for water going up due to an increasing population,” said Mohd Amar.
He explained that the project involves the construction of a new water treatment plan (LRA), reservoir pond, and conversion of old pipes to new ones of around 5,000 km in length.
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