The current water crisis in the Klang Valley could be the worst one to ever hit Malaysia since the water crisis in 1998, where 4.2 million people had to survive on 2,553 million litres of water pper day (MLD), with a shortage of 105 MLD. Now, 7.1 million people need 4,900 MLD, but there are only 4,367 MLD available. This is a shortage of 533 MLD.

Despite the heavy rain now, the Klang Valley is said to have only 80 days of water supply left in two major dams. The Sungai Selangor dam and the Klang Gates dam, each have about two months of water supply, before they hit critical stage.

As of now, the only solution for the water dams is if it rains every day until 30th April. “Assuming the output remains as it is right now, which is 1,000 MLD for Sungai Selangor and 100 MLD for Klang Gates,” says Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) director Md Khairi Selamat.

“Also, we need 200mm of rainfall for the Sungai Selangor dam to rise to 55% from its current level of 37.38%. Until we reach that target, water rationing needs to continue.”

During the water crisis in 1998, 1.8 million people in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur went through a six-month long water rationing exercise (March to September). This was because of the El Nino crisis.