The Sungai Besut catchment covers an area of about 955 km2 with a northeast-

southwest orientation. Approximately 35% of the Besut catchment area can be

considered as flat with land gradient of less than 2%. This flat land encompasses the
coastal strip and the alluvial plains of the river. The coastal strip is about 2 m higher than
the alluvial plains. Scattered across the alluvial plans are prominent hill outcrops. The
catchment rises to over 620 m above sea level in the upper reaches where slopes are
steep, often exceeding 30%.

The average annual basin rainfall is in the order of 3,300 mm with 24-hour rainfall
intensities of up to 400 mm. Significant dry periods are experienced outside the main
monsoon season i.e. from February to August. Intense Northeast Monsoon storms bring
major flooding in the catchment during the November-December period where up to 40%
of the total annual rainfall generally occurs.

The Besut area experiences annual flooding, especially during the Northeast Monsoon
season (Figure 8.1). Flooding occurs when Sungai Besut overflows its banks especially
downstream of Pasir Akar. The floodwaters sweep across the floodplain and then merge
with Sungai Keluang on the right bank and Sungai Semarak (in Kelantan) on the left
bank. Some of the floodwaters re-enter Sungai Besut near the estuary.

The widespread flooding generally inundates most of the 6,500 ha of the Besut
Integrated Agriculture Development Project (IADP) area as well as the riverine towns
and villages such as Kampung Raja, Kampung Amir and Jerteh town. The flooding
causes damage to crops, irrigation facilities and public utilities and resulting in the
evacuation of many homes, causing inconvenience and disruption to socio-economic
activities.

The report entitled “Besut Flood Mitigation Project and Detailed Design of Besut Barrage”
(Ranhill Bersekutu, 2002) had examined river widening and deepening works with the
objective of bringing down the 20-year annual recurrence interval (ARI) floodwater level
profiles to below the bankfull stage or ground levels of the adjacent flood plain. The
findings and recommendations of the study (Ranhill Bersekutu, 2002) are as follows:

a) The river widening and deepening works depressed floodwater level profile with
the existing riverbanks so that the area will be protected from the 20-year ARI
floods, except for the Pengkalan Nangka/Kuala Besut areas;
b) The Pengkalan Nangka area is the most in need of protection from river flooding
due to the low and flat coast. The flood mitigation works proposed for this area
comprised of river widening and deepening in combination with flood bunds
averaging 2 m high for a total of 14 km along both riverbanks; and
c) The river dredging involves deepening and widening of the existing Sungai Besut
channels with appropriate realignment from Kuala Besut bridge to Pasir Akar.
Compound channel section was proposed with top widths ranging from 240 to 350
m. No further river widening can be considered downstream of the Kuala Besut
bridge to the sea as the estuary is occupied by the LKIM Kuala Besut jetty complex
and Kampung Kuala Besut. The existing river alignment is to be maintained in the
widening/deepening works, except for the following reaches:
i) The proposed dredging section is realigned for about 900 m to avoid
Kampung Raja situated on the outer bend of a meander loop;
ii) The existing river section and the low weir structure are to be left as they are
at Pengkalan Nangka. However, a partial diversion channel is provided
across the flood plain within the river meander for about 1 km to increase the
flow capacity to accommodate the 20-year ARI peak discharge of 3,000 m3/s.
iii) The widening/deepening of Sungai Besut is realigned across two small
meandering loops upstream of Jerteh town.

The major river structures requiring upgrading works in the river dredging proposal are:

a) Besut Barrage – A new barrage of much bigger size was recommended with the
river dredging proposal as described above to accommodate 3,000 m3/s of flow;
b) Jerteh Bridge – The existing Jerteh bridge would have to be widened from 150 to
210 m.
c) New Pengkalan Nangka Low Weir – Another weir in the proposed partial diversion
channel is required with recommended width of 170 m; and
d) Kuala Besut Bridge – The bridge structure was wide enough. Only river deepening
will be carried out in the area proposed for the additional mooring areas.
Population Projection (2010 – 2050) (NWRS 2011)
Flood Map for 2001-2010
Estimated Flood Hydrograph for Sungai Besut

Both reports entitled “Feasibility Study for the Besut Flood Mitigation Project” (KTA, 1998)
and “Review of Besut Flood Mitigation Project and Detailed Design of Besut Barrage”
(Ranhill Bersekutu, 2002) used Runoff Routing Model (RORB) for hydrological analyses.

RORB hydrological model is based on routing of rainfall excess through non-linear

catchment storage. The model is semi-distributed where the catchment is discretised to
independent lumped sub-models and flow from each sub-model is combined through
simple routing methods. The storage relationship is described as:

S = kQm Equation 8.1

Where,

S = Storage
Q = Outflow discharge
m = Dimensionless exponent
k = Dimensional empirical coefficient

K = kc.kr Equation 8.2

Where,

kc = Constant representative of catchment characteristic as a whole

kr = Characteristics of a particular sub-model storage (relative delay time)

The exponent m of the storage function in RORB varies from 0.6 to 0.8.

The loss models used in both studies (1998 and 2002) were the constant continuous
loss model and the continuous loss used was 4.5 mm/hr. The model exponent, m of 0.8
was adopted with kc value of 100. The model was tested using the 1986 flood event for
calibration.

The RORB model established for Sungai Besut (Ranhill Bersekutu, 2002) was used for
simulation of flood hydrographs at Besut Barrage, Jerteh town, Pengkalan Nangka Low
Weir and Kuala Besut bridge for ARI 5-, 20- and 100-year. The results are presented in
the following table:
 Peak Flood Discharge (m3/s)
ARI Location Case A Case B Case C Case D
(without Dam) (Batu 13 Dam) 3 Dams Paya Peda Dam
Besut Barrage 1,735 859 1,059 1,138
Jerteh 1,805 1,062 1,246 1,330
5-year
Pulau Nangka 1,908 1,229 1,412 1,500
Kuala Besut 1,954 1,340 1,505 1,563
Besut Barrage 2,273 1,159 1,419 1,768
Jerteh 2,527 1,526 1,783 2,027
20-year
Pulau Nangka 2,649 1,736 1,993 2,244
Kuala Besut 2,753 1,916 2,147 2,364
Besut Barrage 2,573 1,706 2,090 2,302
100-
Pulau Nangka 3,219 2,212 2,572 2,798
year
Kuala Besut 3,979 2,658 3,039 3,259
Source: Ranhill Bersekutu (2002)

Case A represents the base case with no flood mitigation scenario. Case B and C
include the provision of Batu 13 dam storage as well as the Paya Peda, Kampung Kuala
Peng and Keruak dams respectively. Since only Paya Peda Dam has been constructed,
Case D was used as input of flood hydrograph for the hydrodynamic model.

Since the previous study only simulated 20-year ARI flood hydrograph, the 100-year ARI
flood hydrograph for hydrodynamic model was derived by interpolation as shown in
Figure 8.2.
3500
FLOOD HYDROGRAPH AT KUALA BESUT

3000

2500

Q20(From Previous Study)

Discharge (cumecs)

2000
Q100(Interpolate)

1500

1000

500

Time (6 hourly step)

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Figure 8.2
Estimated flood hydrograph at Kuala Besut
Water Supply
Existing WATER Treatment Plants in Besut
 Status of NRW in Terengganu

Water Testing Laboratories in and around Besut in Terengganu

Proposed Source Works and Status
Proposed WTPs (NWRS 2000) and Status

Proposed WTPs (NWRS 2011)

Supply-Demand Curve for Besut
Water Demand Projection for Besut (NWRS 2011)
Water Demand for Besut District
Sewerage
Sedimentation
Figure 1: Paya Peda Dam with Live Storage of 218x106 m3 completed end 2015
Coastline
Environmental Aspects
Water Quality