PETALING JAYA: After nearly a month of scorching heat and dry spells, Taiping, the wettest town in Peninsular Malaysia, is seeing rainfall again, which has begun to refill the iconic Taiping Lake Gardens that had nearly dried up.
According to The Star, several residents had expressed gratitude for the rainfall.
“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,“ local e-hailing driver Jarrod Nelson, 50, told the English daily.
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“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.”
Norainina Shahirah Azizan, a 28-year-old tuition teacher who regularly visits the Lake Gardens for recreational activities, noted the improvement in weather.
“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.”
Mohd Firdaus Hamid, 31, a fruit seller near the Lake Gardens, mentioned an uptick in visitors checking on the lake’s condition over the past 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.”
Taiping, famously known as “Rain Town” for its frequent downpours and holding the title of Malaysia’s wettest town, last experienced a severe drought around a decade ago.
It was previously reported that the lake was drying up due to prolonged severe drought and a significant lack of rainfall.
