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Penang Hills and Trails - The Fettes Aqueducts and the Guillemard System |
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This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. Since this page was written some time ago the PBA have modified their policy of turning a blind eye to visitors and have erected barbed wire and razor wire to prevent access to the Fettes Aqueducts from the Chin Farm / Bayview Beach Hotel. Visitors found in the area of the aqueduct by patrols are reported to face fines and this will have cut access to popular trails to Rain Gauges 17, 20 and 21. (This added 10th March 2023). I have prepared some pages on 'water' in the context of Penang's hills, covering rain gauges, catchment areas and some of the lesser known dams and reservoirs. I must stress that what is presented is unofficial and empirical, derived almost entirely from what I have found as I have explored. Unfortunately, while the various bodies which are involved are quite good at erecting signs (which are then left to rust) they are poor at public communication. You can search the web in vain for any official information and on the one occasion I tried to approach the PBA directly, it was like communicating with a brick wall.. See also:
PBA (Perbadanan Bekalan Air) is the body charged with the public water supply in Penang. They have significant dams at Air Itam, Teluk Bahang and Mengkuang (in Seberang Prai) together with smaller dams and reservoirs elsewhere. They operate the Fettes aqueduct behind Batu Ferringhi and a system of interconnected pipelines. In fact, I have read that this supplies barely 20% of Penang's needs, the rest coming from the Muda river in neighbouring Kedah. Amazingly, Penang has both the cheapest water in the country (thanks to a massive subsidy) and the highest per capita consumption, no doubt the two are related and it's clearly not sustainable. The Fettes Aqueducts were devised as an elegant method of alleviating a shortage of water when the existing supply from what are now the Botanical Gardens was no longer sufficient. Basically water is taken from a series of streams in the hills above Batu Ferringhi and carried on a very gently falling gradient before entering a tunnel which carries it under the hill to the back of Tanjung Bunga. Here it is filtered and treated and pumped to a reservoir below Mount Erskine. If you want more historical information, please see an interesting article on the project on the Penang Heritage Trust website, http://www.pht.org.my/?page_id=352. Note that the PBA has now closed this area to the general public and what follows will most likely be out of date. The following account is taken from two of my walks - Colonel Fettes Legacy and Bukit Batu Ferringhi Rerun. Access was usually possible from the main gate (shown below) which is off Jalan Sungai Satu which runs up from beside the Holiday Inn on the main road through Batu Ferringhi. It was always available via Chin Farm opposite the Bayview Beach Hotel, this involves walking up a short distance towards the hills, turning right through the pile of waste building material and continuing up to the Batu Ferringhi reservoir. From here a road goes to the left and comes out by the 'canon' shown below. The far end of the system is where the Sungai Batu Ferringhi emerges from the hills and enters a small dam. Despite the warning notice, hikers were effectively free to enter (as are people wanting to use the rock pools beyond), the path leads eventually to just short of Western Hill. This is a tough walk and not to be undertaken casually. Note that the PBA has now closed this area to the general public.
The water runs in a pipe from here to just above a small bridge and further along the road these buildings which are characteristic of their times (the late 1920s).
The route passes two more small dams:
This section is built on a gradient of 1 in 500 to suit the terrain and finishes after a rotating leaf filter. The 'egg' is the end of a pipe which leads down to the end of the main aqueduct.
A mock up of Francis Light's famous canon marks the end of the main aqueduct at the 3km mark, the 'egg' building covers the take off for a pipeline (presumably to Batu Ferringhi), while the bypass route was closed off during our visit:
Colonel Fettes would no doubt be curling in his grave if he could see the mess that is Batu Ferringhi today. Just look at the jungle lined graceful curves of his aqueduct, with masses of pitcher plants hanging from the vines and ferns:
This aqueduct is apparently laid on a gradient of 1 in 1800 to keep the water flowing at the right rate which will be less than on the upper section, hence this section is larger in cross section. Where the aqueduct finishes the water runs into a tunnel which goes through the hill to Tanjung Bunga, the gushing pipe is bringing water from a side valley and the additional pipe increases carrying capacity.
The road continues down hill and emerges at the top of Jalan Sungai Satu which runs up from beside the Holiday Inn on the main road through Batu Ferringhi. Access is usually possible here but is always available via Chin Farm opposite the Bayview Beach Hotel.
This is the other end of the tunnel, it lies within the secure area of the PBA facility at the corner of Jalan Lembah Permai at the back of Tanjung Bunga.
The tunnel entrance is inscribed 1926 - 1929. I had emerged from the forest behind and it being a Sunday security was non-existent.
Normally recreational walkers are free to walk up to the gate shown above, you go beyond at your own risk. The treated water is pumped from here to the reservoir at Mount Erskine (Guillemard Reservoir). A drone gets a far better picture than you can obtain at ground level: Once upon a time, the public were allowed to walk in the area, now it is off limits.
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