WORKS to replace two 1.2m control valve units that were leaking at the Sungai Dua water treatment plant and preventive maintenance projects carried out at 22 other locations were fully completed last night.

Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) chief executive officer K. Pathmanantan said all works were finished ahead of schedule and water supply restoration had started at 11pm yesterday.

“Water supply is being normalised in stages today for 197,025 water consumers which is 33 per cent of the 590,000 affected users in Seberang Perai and stage one needs to be completed by 6 am tomorrow as scheduled.

“Level one restoration is not affected by the incident in Sungai Perai because the Sungai Dua water treatment plant is pumping water to level one restoration users through other main pipelines,” he said in a statement today.

He said stage two is expected to be implemented starting at 6.01am tomorrow where PBAPP aims to normalise water supply to 495,065 consumers, which is 84% of the 590,000 affected users in Seberang Perai and parts of the island.

Pathmanathan said the success of stage two as scheduled, depended on restarting operations on the damaged section on Sungai Perai underwater pipeline.

He said PBAPP is working hard to complete the emergency repair works in Sungai Perai today and will continue to provide updates on the progress.

“Work is being carried out in Sungai Perai after it was delayed last night due to a technical problem where one of the clamps specially designed to be placed over the 1.35m-long hole on the pipeline could not be properly installed,” he said.

He said the diving operation was suspended and a heavy crane was brought in and used to lift the unsuitable clamp for on-site modifications.

“This is the fastest engineering solution with the lowest risk of long delays and commercial diving teams are scheduled to lock the modified clamps in place on the damaged pipeline today,” he said.

Earlier, PBAPP announced that approximately 590,000 consumers, including non-domestic users, will experience scheduled water disruption for 96 hours starting at 6am yesterday until 6am on January 14 to allow for the replacement of two valve units at the Sungai Dua water treatment plant as well as other ancillary work at 22 locations throughout Penang.

However, PBAPP expects at least 101 areas in the Seberang Perai Utara and Seberang Perai Tengah districts will receive water supply after 48 hours while a total of 157 areas involving Seberang Perai Tengah, Seberang Perai Selatan as well as the northeast and southwest districts on the island will start receiving water supply after 72 hours. – Bernama, January 11, 2024.