intermittent temperamental rain in penang

it has been raining in penang for the past few days. and what a rain it was. within a day, the rain comes and goes, comes and goes, and it was heavy and light, heavy and light.

you get out of your house, cloud is clear. you begin to walk to the bus-stop. halfway walking there, suddenly… whooshh!! the rain came… and it was so heavy! quick, you open your umbrella and continue walking to the bus-stop. as you reach the bus-stop, suddenly the rain stops.

two days ago when i left my office with chaly, there was only a slight drizzle, so i just wore my rain jacket. as i was just riding chaly several meters, suddenly the rain came down in a torrent! i had to stop by the side to wear my ‘poncho’ raincoat.

well, it had been like this these days in penang. the rain will come pouring very heavy… but only for 10mins or so, and it will either come to a drizzle or to a complete stop! and stop for say maybe 1/2 hour or so, then suddenly pouring cat and dogs again!

the rain is welcome because it clears the haze but when it rains heavily and last for near 1/2 hour, most of the roads will be flooded, and of course traffic jam everywhere. and of course the rain is most inconvenient for poor me who use a two-wheelers instead of a four-wheelers.

i guess with all the rain these days, and most of the time heavy rain (though don’t last long), penang don’t have to worry about their reservoir dam going dry, like in other states. but don’t be too happy, penangtites. yes, everybody knows that penang enjoys the lowest water tariffs but soon the water tariffs might be raised.
this is according to our CM, tan sri dr koh tsu koon, who said that the ‘perbadanan bekalan air pulau pinang’ will be doing a review of the water tariffs.

dr koh brought that up, after he was speaking on another important issue – an issue raised by our ex PM, who always seems to ‘cakap banyak’ – that penang should pay kedah for water sourced from the muda river, at the penang water’s supply corp. AGM. he said penang is standing firm on this water issue.

dr koh stated that as the muda river flows through seberang perai (the mainland), the river does not solely belongs to kedah, hence penang should not pay kedah.

read more on the water dispute between kedah and penang here.