Time for a rain dance

By Ian Choong

PETALING JAYA: The looming dry spell has been compounded with grey smog infiltrates the air and dry taps. While the Air Pollutant Index (API) levels around the country has raised alarms, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (SYABAS) is not out to make situations better with its planned water rationing around Selangor over the next few weeks causing distress among those affected.

Hot weather had been persisted since the middle of February, when checking through the web portal The Weather Channel, most of the areas along the Peninsular Malaysia will sustain with dry hot weather for the next whole week.

According to Malaysia’s Meteorological Department (MMD), there would be lesser amount of rains in the coming days due to strong winds blowing from the north-east. “We are reaching the end of the north-east monsoon and so the weather is expected to remain hot with isolated showers for the next two weeks,” said the central forecast division director Muhammad Helmi Abdullah.

[The unusual bright sun due to the thick haze.]

Hot weather already an issue, and now, with the unhealthy API in certain areas around Klang Valley, it had exacerbation the situation. A lot of public blame our neighbor country as the mastermind of the haze.

  

“It must be the forest fire and the active volcano eruptions in Indonesia that causes the haze; it is repeatedly happen over the years, especially during the north-east monsoon,” told by Madam Tang, 53 from Ipoh.

On the contrary, the main cause of the suffocating haze in the northern region of Malaysia at this moment time is neither by the forest fire nor volcanic eruptions in our neighboring country, indeed it is us.

According to the Department of Environment on its website, “The medium-level of haze that Malaysia is experiencing now is due to internal sources, which are resulting from land and forest fires in a few states.”

The government had carried the cloud seeding operation to deal with the issues, and the long expecting rain had eventually falls in certain areas. However, according to Muhammad, there would be no more cloud seeding operations by this week, the results was not conducive for the formation of rain clouds, while only a few areas show satisfactory results. People are not impressed with the results of the artificial rain, the haze is still there.

Cloud seeding in the sky near KotaDamansara

“Although  the rainy season was expected to set in gradually from the third week of this month, but the water levels of the dams around Klang Valley is not affected after the artificial rain, the reservoirs at the Klang Gates and Sungai Selangor dams were still remain at 52.84 and 44.51 percent respectively,” said Muhammad.

In the prevention for the reservoirs to run dry and drops to the critical level, SYABAS has taken the initiative to go for water disruptions. The water supplies in most of the area in Klang Valley will be affected. Nevertheless, the bustling residency around the Klang Valley will suffer the most.

During the interviews, some of the respondents said that their daily routine has been affected due to the water disruptions. Some of them suffer a great impact where they could not even flush the toilet after use. Most of them have to wear mask under the oppressive hot weather to prevent the suffocating burnt smell causes by the haze or remain indoors and yet no water to wash away the stinking body odor.

“This detestable weather has make me sweat more than usual, to wash off the foul sweats, I am forced to take shower at my friend’s place since my apartment has a little water supply for the whole block and the water need to save for toilet flushing,” told by Miss Wong, 27.

Water has to be collected drop by drop in order to fill in the pail.
Photo credit: Miss Wong, taken at her apartment.

“I stay in a rental house with no air conditioner and I have experienced many sleepless nights due to the hot weather, however I decided to not open the window because if I open them, the burning scene of the haze will come in and I am sure that my asthma will attack soon. What I can do is take excessive showers to refresh my body, I hope that the water disruption will not affect my staying area,” told Anthony Lee, student from IACT.

However, there are some respondents who remain positive with the water disruption and try their best to find a way out.

“I stayed in Bangsar, I had experienced water shortage at my condominium, this might due to the crowded housing area in my neighborhood and water supply is inadequate for all the households. The water disruption did not affect me much as I am staying alone, I am eating out and I choose to take shower at my fitness center which located at the mall,” said Ching Keat, 43.

“It is okay, I had stored enough of water for my usage, but so far, there is still no water disruption in my house, I hope that the water supply will be always there,” told Zhao Tang, 24.

The small business might go through the hardest moment in their operations, especially the food and beverages industry. They need continuous supplies of water to sustain their business, ranged from toilet flushing, dishes washing and ingredient cleaning.

“Last Sunday, the water supply was interruption for the whole area in Section 21, Petaling Jaya; we had to call it off after 2p.m., there is not even a single drop of water coming out from the tap. We are forced to shut our stalls earlier and my workers have to wash all ten tubs of the greasy dishes and bowls with only a pail of water,” told Mr Lee, 59.

The implication of water disruption is to ensure that water will still be available after the long drought, however when we consider the cost of cloud seeding, why not the government start to put in more initiative to solve the issues of water shortage?