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V. CASE STUDY: MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF FRESHWATER RESOURCES IN KUALA LUMPUR
[ V-A | V-B | V-C | V-D ]
B. Water resources availability
In peninsular Malaysia, the average annual rainfall is about 2,400 mm, while for Sabah and Sarawak it is 2,360 and 3,630 mm, respectively. That adds up to an estimated 990 billion cu m., of which 567 billion cu m. is surface run-off. Of that surface run-off, 147 cu m. occurs in peninsular Malaysia. It should be noted that Kuala Lumpur experiences two annual rainfall peaks: March to May and October to December. Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, as the most developed regions, have a relatively lower surface run-off rate of approximately 7 billion cu m. per year.
The estimated annual aggregate domestic, industrial and irrigation water demand was about 12.4 billion cu m. in 1995. However, water supply shortages are still being experienced in densely populated and economically developed areas such as Kuala Lumpur, mainly because the uneven temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall results in widely fluctuating river flow. In addition, difficulties in enforcing pollution control have rendered some of the available resources less useful.
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