CIVIL ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
PERAK IRRIGATION PROJECT
First phase of
M$16 million
scheme will be
completed
this year
Upstream view of the main spillway of Bukit Merah reservoir.
T
'HE oldest irrigation works in main- land Malaysia, completed about 60 years ago, is receiving a massive facelift in two stages, costing a total of M$16 million, to enable double cropping of padi on 60,000 acres of land,
The scheme is located in the rice- bowl district of Krian in North Perak and the work is being under- taken by the Drainage and Irriga- tion Department.
First phase, costing M$8 million, is one of the major projects under- taken in Perak under the Malaya second five-year rural development plan 1961-1965. It will be complet- ed before the end of this year.
Early indigenous works in the area were in existence prior to the era of the British administration and it was not until 1889 that large scale irrigation works were contem- plated by the then government, After much deliberation, a scheme was approved in 1899 and complet- ed in 1906 at a cost of M$1.6 mil- lion.
Since then a patchwork of exten- sions and improvements has been
made from time to time, but much of the original work remained the same until the first phase of the ex- tension scheme commenced in 1961.
One of the major works involved in the extension, is doubling the storage capacity of the Bukit Merah Reservoir, which is already the big- gest man-made lake in the country. It contains 8,160 million gallons of
Right Reinforced con. crete intake structure which cost M$560,000 and is now in service.
Below
Bukit Merah reservoir, showing the main spillway in the left foreground and the new- ly raised earth bund, 1,300 ft. long, completed in 1964. When in opera. tion the reservoir will be raised 6ft. and the total area of the lake will be 10 sq. miles.
water and has a surface area of 73 sq. miles and a maximum depth of 25 ft.
The reservoir, in which fish breed- ing is an important sideline, is fed by three rivers, the Sungei Kurau, the Sungei Merah and the Sungei Ijok.
In increasing the storage capacity of the reservoir, the half mile long
Far East Architect & Builder May, 1965
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