The construction of tube wells, which has been the preferred choice of the people in Kelantan since they were faced with the problem of water supply a few years ago, will not affect the soil structure in the state, said Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) senior lecturer Prof Dr Hamzah Hussin.

He said most of the tube wells are installed in the northern areas around Kota Bharu, Bachok, Tumpat and Pasir Mas while in the south, those living in the interior areas such as Gua Musang and Kuala Krai are more likely to use trapped rainwater.

“The percentage of people using tube wells is relatively small compared to the total Kelantan population which is about two million currently.

“The tube wells that are found at most houses are installed with the use of small-sized pipes which will not disturb the structure of the earth or cause a sinkhole and so far no negative effects have been found from this alternative measure,” he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

He said the use of underground water resources in this country cannot be compared to countries that are facing the problem of soil deposits and sedimentation, due to the use of large capacity of water such as in Jakarta, Indonesia or Bangkok, Thailand.

“There are about 15 million people living in Jakarta alone (almost half of Malaysia’s population) so of course it involves the usage of lot of underground water which will affect the earth structure in the area,” said Hamzah of UMK Earth Science Faculty.

He said the amount of water being sucked from underground in Malaysia is very small compared to the extremely rich underground water resources in this country.

In addition, Malaysia only uses about three per cent of its underground water resources compared to other countries in the world including Denmark which uses 100 per cent of underground water, Austria 98 per cent, Thailand 80 per cent and China 78 per cent.

“Despite the hot weather and drought, Malaysia receives plenty of rainfall throughout the year, especially in the East Coast area.

“This indirectly supplies a lot of underground water resources in this country and whatever water have been used are replaced,” he said.

In fact, he said with the high capacity of underground water in Malaysia, this could be an alternative source of national water supply in the future.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency