Back to normal: Visitors walking by the water at the Taiping Lake Gardens - RONNIE CHIN/The Star
TAIPING: It has started raining again in the wettest town in the peninsula here and residents are thankful that they no longer need to bear with the hot weather.
A check at the Taiping Lake Gardens, which nearly dried up a few weeks ago, found that it has started filling up with water again.
Ehailing driver Jarrod Nelson, 50, said he was glad that the rains have returned, which helps to lower the temperature.
“There has been no rain for almost a month; I could only do exercises early in the morning, before 7am, to avoid the extreme heat,” he said when met at the Lake Gardens here.
“Now I can resume my daily exercises in the evening, as the temperature has gone down.
“I am also very happy now as the water level at the lake has also risen,” he added.
Taiping is known as Rain Town, with an average annual rainfall of about 4,000mm – compared with the peninsula’s average of between 2,000mm and 2,500mm.
Extreme hot and dry weather has hit several parts of Malaysia, including the northern region of Perak, since the end of June.
On July 31, The Star reported that over 70% of the channel of lakes at the 144-year-old Taping Lake Gardens had evaporated, leaving a dystopian view of cracking, sun-baked mud.
Tuition teacher Norainina Shahirah Azizan, 28, who frequents the Lake Gardens for recreational activities with her family, said the weather had improved.
“Taiping is usually cool, but it has been quite hot in the past month.
“We could not bear to come here during the hot weather, but it’s better now since it started raining last week.
“We can see that some sections of the lake are still dry, but it’s not as bad as it was three weeks ago,” she added.
Mohd Firdaus Hamid, 31, who sells fruits near the Lake Gardens, said a lot of people had come to check on the condition of the lake in the last few weeks.
“They would drop by my stall to get some fruits and business was good.
“However, I am truly thankful that the weather has returned to normal and we no longer need to bear the heat,” he said.
When contacted, Pokok Assam assemblyman Ong Seng Guan said the Ranting Waterfall and several rivers near Bukit Larut, which dried up last month, are flowing again.
“I think it will take a few more rainy days for things to return to normal,” he said.
