Dams have been conducted since the ancient times for water supply and irrigation. As civilisations evolved, functions of dams have expanded into water supply, irrigation, flood mitigation, hydropower, navigation as well to support ecosystem, environmental needs, recreational usage and aesthetics. Dams and resevoirs provide shared benefits to millions users thought out the world.
As for Malaysia, Bukit Merah in Taiping , Perak is the oldest dam. It was built in 1906 for irrigation purpose. Since then, more dams were built in other states for water supply, flood mitigation, hydropower and irrigation. Th elatest dam is Susu Dam as part of Ulu Jelai Hydroelectric Scheme in Pahang. The dam was completely constructedand operational in 2016. This coffetable book serves as an initial compilation of major dams in Malaysia, enlisting their functions with details on their type, storage volume and reservoir surface area.
At present, there are 104 dams in Malaysia with total storage of approximately 84,000 million m3 of water. Of these dams, 83 are located in Peninsular Malaysia and 21 in Labuan, Sabah and Sarawak in East of Malaysia. 81 of these dams are categorised as large dams while the remaining 23 are small dams. At 29 million population, this is equivalent to storage of 2883 m3 per capita, as compared to 6000 m3 per capita in North America, 4500 m3 per capita in Australia and 800 m3 in South Africa.
Dams in Malaysia were originally designed without intention to raise them, but several were raised such as Bukit Merah Dam (in 1965 and 1984), Klang Gates Dam (1979), Durian Tunggal Dam (in 1992), Lebam Dam (in 1992), Sg Tinggi Dam (in 2003) and Timah Tasoh Dam (in 2010), Bekok Dam and Mengkuang Dam are currently in proposal to be raised.
Water Supply Sector
Water supply sector has the most number of dams in Malaysia with a total 57 dams. Its total storage is 2326 million cubic metres at an average of 41 million cubic metres perdam (8 MCM/capita).
For the Water Supply Sector, the biggest dam is Linggiu Dam in Johor with a volume of 760 million cubic metres. Chereh Dam in Pahang is the largest in terms of surfac area with 16 km2. The highest water supply dam is Selangor at 110 m height.
Hydropower Sector
There are 15 hydropower dams in Malaysia, of which 12 located in Peninsular Malaysia and 3 are in Sarawak. Total storage for hydropower dams is 79,142 million m3. The largest hydropower dam is Bakun Dam in Sarawak , with total storage of 43,800 million m3 of water and total surface area 695 km2. Bakun Dam is also listed by ICOLD as 41 out of 60 highest dams in the world.
Kenyir dam is the second largest dam in Malaysia, with total storage 13,600 million m3 and total surface area of 369 km2.
Irrigation Sector
There are total of dams specifically built for irrigation with total storage of 1997 million m3. Pedu dam under Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) in Kedah is the largest irrigation dam with total surface area of 84 km2 standing at 74 m high.
Flood Mitigation Sector
There are 5 flood mitigation dams in Malaysia with total storage of 137 million m3. Timah Tasoh dam in Perlis is the largest flood mitigation dam with 33 milliom m3 storage and total surface area of 13 km2. To cope with the increasing demand, the dam was rised to total storage of 87.3 million m3 with surface area of 19 km2. However, Batu Dam in Selangor is the highest dlood mitigation dam at 44m high to protect population centres downstream.
Environmental and Recreation Sector
Putrajaya dam is one of the famous recreational dams located in Putrajaya, the administrative city of Malaysia. It was constructed in 2001 with total storage volume of 24 million m3 and surface area of 4 km2. This 30m rockfill embankment dam was built as one of the unique feature of Putrajaya City, serving multiple functions for boating, fishing, recreational and water sport as well as providing aesthetic value to this administrative capital city of Malaysia. The reservoir is also part of wetland for enhancing water quality of the lake.
New Repas dam in small earthfill embankment dam located in Bentong, Pahang was built in 1963 at about 610m downstream of the Old Repas dam to retain silt generated from the mining activity upstream. It has a catchment area of approxiamately 28 km2. The dam is 192 m long and 13.4m high.
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Dams of Malaysia
Published by
Malaysian National Committee on Large Dams (MYCOLD)
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Malaysian National Committee on Large Dams (MYCOLD)
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