Penang Water Supply Corporation (abbreviation PWSC or PBAPP) is a state owned company which is responsible for water supply services in the state of Penang. It replaced Penang Water Authority (PWA) or Pihak Berkuasa Air Pulau Pinang (PBA) following its corporatisation on 1 March 1999 by the state government.
History
Since the British Colonial Era, water supply had been under the responsibility of the municipal and town councils. During the colonial era, several man-made structures were built across the state, many of which were not functioning today or were converted to recreational park. These included an aqueduct in Penang Hill in 1805 to supply water to George Town populace and Bukit Panchor Dam near Nibong Tebal in 1888. In 1894, Waterfall Reservoir was commissioned at the Penang Botanic Gardens to store clean water, because there was insufficient pressure from the 1805 aqueduct system. As George Town population grows, a Reservoir was commissioned in 1914 followed by a water treatment plant in 1929 in Air Itam.[1]
Despite experiencing the second world war in the 1940s, George Town's population growth continued. Concerns about water sufficiency led to the extraction of raw water from new sources, such as at Teluk Bahang, and the construction of reservoirs at Bukit Dumbar with a storage capacity of 8000000 impgal. Water consumption in the city escalated from 300000 impgal per day in 1951 to 700000 impgal per day in 1957. By 1961, water consumption in George Town reached 750000 impgal per day.[2]