Sabah asks for cloud seeding
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has requested the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to conduct cloud seeding operations as it is facing water shortage.
Sabah State Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong said on Monday that the state had officially written to Nadma as river catchments dry up and wildfires break out across the state.
He said the state was hoping for cloud seeding to be carried out this week over all water catchment areas as well as at Pulau Sebatik in Tawau where the dam had dried out over the last six weeks during the hot and dry spell.
On Sunday, hundreds of villagers in Tamparuli had sought assistance from the government after their gravity water feeds on the foothills of Mount Kinabalu dried up.
Firemen had also been busy battling bush, jungle and peat fires and had now used helicopters to carry out water bombings to fight hill fires that could not be reached from the ground.
Since Sunday, firemen in Kota Belud District have been fighting forest fires.
With the help from their counterparts in Kota Marudu, they put out nearly 324ha (800 acres) of secondary forest and brush fires on Sunday.
Sabah Fire and Rescue Department assistant director of operations Hamsa Isnurdini said the affected areas have exceeded 809ha (2,000 acres).
Among the affected areas are Kampung Kimo-Kimo, Kampung Kondis, Kampung Pompod, Kampung Song-Song and Kampung Lingkodon Kota Belud.
Sabah is seeing less rainfall due to the El Nino phenomenon which was expected to end this month.
Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Shahelmey Yahya recently said that the water at dams except for the one in Pulau Sebatik, could last for three more months.