The water level at the Bukit Merah Dam has reached Stage Three Irrig­a­tion Crit­ical Status, with the cur­rent reser­voir level recor­ded at 6.294 metres.

Perak Infra­struc­ture, Energy, Water and Pub­lic Trans­port Com­mit­tee chair­man Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamalud­din said the water at the dam stands at 9.3825 mil­lion cubic metres, equi­val­ent to 17.22% of its total capa­city.

He said no rain­fall was recor­ded in the past 24 hours and weather con­di­tions at the dam were clear.

“For dam gate oper­a­tions, con­trolled water release through the out­let gate is ongo­ing. At Ter­usan Selin­s­ing, two gates are opened at 20% (488mm), while at Ter­usan Besar one gate is opened at 3% (73mm),” he said in a state­ment yes­ter­day.

He added that the spill­way remains closed as the water level is well below the over­flow threshold.

For irrig­a­tion intake, the dis­charge rate is 0.566 cubic metres per second to Ter­usan Besar and 6.230 cubic metres per second to Ter­usan Selin­s­ing, in line with cur­rent irrig­a­tion needs.

Mohammad Nizar emphas­ised that con­tinu­ous mon­it­or­ing and prudent water release man­age­ment are cru­cial to ensure the irrig­a­tion sup­ply could be sus­tained for a longer period.

He also expressed appre­ci­ation for the cooper­a­tion of the dam and irrig­a­tion teams in ensur­ing its man­age­ment remains safe and effect­ive.

On Tues­day, Deputy Prime Min­is­ter Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who chairs the National Dis­aster Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee, said cloud seed­ing oper­a­tions would be car­ried out in Johor, Kedah and Perak until Sunday, includ­ing at the Bukit Merah Dam. – Bernama