For The Sake Of Rain, The Malaysian Government Again Modified The Weather In Penang

Malaysian/UNSPLASH/Christoph Theiser

JAKARTA - The Malaysian government has again planted clouds on the island of Pinang, Penang State, to produce rain on two reservoirs on the island.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) together with the Malaysian National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) planted clouds with 800 kilograms of salt and 6,000 liters of water prepared by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MET Malaysia) to produce rain on two dams on Pulau Pinang.

"The seed operation carried out until Tuesday (13/6) targeting the area around Teluk Bahang and Air Itam Reservoir on Pinang Island is the second time at the request of the Pinang Island Government," said the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Tasks, Armizan Mohd Ali.

The cloud seeding operation above the same area was carried out on May 2-4 and, according to him, 100 percent of the rain in the targeted area was successful.

According to him, the operation of seeding the clouds using the C130 Hercules aircraft this time was the first step to overcome the shrinking of water in the two reservoirs, where currently the water capacity in the Air Itam Reservoir is only 48.6 percent remaining, while the Teluk Bahang Reservoir is still 44.4 percent.

He said the probability of forecasting rain for the operation was around 80 percent due to relatively low atmospheric humidity.

The Malaysian government since May 16 decided to strengthen preparedness for the impact of hot and dry weather phenomena during the Southwest Monsoon, which according to Malaysia MET, began on May 15 and is expected to continue until September 2023.

At that time, MET Malaysia estimated that rainfall would be low in most areas, causing hot and dry weather.

For this reason, Armizan said that the state government can apply for assistance in cloud seeding operations to help increase water capacity in rainshed areas so that they can ensure that water supplies can still be distributed to the community.