KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 (AFP): Malaysia said Friday it will expand water rationing in and around its capital, in a move affecting millions as drought continues to scorch a tropical country usually synonymous with torrential rain.
The national water commission said in a statement over 300,000 households in Kuala Lumpur and nearby Selangor, Malaysia's most populous state, will experience cuts for the whole of March, after a two-month dry spell depleted reservoirs.
Some 60,000 households in Selangor-a central state which is the nation's economic hub-have already been hit by rationing since Tuesday.
According to the commission, another 50,000 premises in the southern state of Johor have also undergone rationing last week as much of Malaysia suffers under bone-dry conditions and high temperatures.
"The hot weather and lack of rain in catchment areas have caused all reservoirs in Selangor to recede," said the commission's chairman Ismail Kasim.
Kuala Lumpur shares its water supply with Selangor, where the reserve level of dams have dipped below 50 percent.
A spokeswoman from the state's private water company also told AFP about 2.2 million people would be affected.
Malaysia tends to experience dry weather early in the year, but the current spell has been unusually long, sparking bushfires and protests from communities whose taps have run dry.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department said in a statement to AFP Wednesday that 11 out of 40 weather stations have in the past two months experienced their longest-ever recorded dry spells and warned that the dry patch could last another month.
Drought forces water rationing on millions of Malaysians
FE Team | Published: March 01, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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