Melati Lake

Introduction

Tasik Melati is a natural wetland within development area. The park is famous for its lakes and its recreational facilities. Melati Lake derives its name from the fragrant Jasmine flower. It could probably adapted Melati from the adjacent housing estate called Taman Melati.
In its original form, Tasik Melati is a wetland with its wild plant locally known as “kercit”. Its water never dries up as it is use as irrigation by local farmers. The wetland is developed by Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran in 1977. He increased the water capacity by building an embankment on the lake for the use of its water for 350 acres of paddy land. In 2001, the Perlis State government officially handed over the lake to Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran to develop the infrastructure, maintenance and service of the whole 80 acres of the lake. Now the area is widely known as a recreational park.

More than 150 islands scattered sandbars can be seen this lake. A footway has been constructed across the lake to enable visitors to enjoy the stunning views, along the pavement is also provided a retreat. Tasik Melati is located in the north Kangar. It is a small, but beautiful lake. The man-made lake has become a favourite of the public place. The distance from the capital of Kangar to this park is roughly 10 kilometres apart, and visitors are welcomed at any point of time. Parking would not be a problem as there is ample parking space available for the lake-goers.

An advantage of Melati Lake is the easy accessibility. Apart from the vast parking lot, jogging tracks and concrete walkways are all over the park to make it convenient for visitors. Even more attractive is the fact that this park requires no entrance fee; basically this park is free of charge.

Mostly during the weekends, families could be seen at this park as they would be spending their leisure time here, either exercising or simply just picnicking. Taman Melati is definitely a family-friendly recreational area. For instance, children could be having a ball of time at the playground provided while the elderly people take their time going through the reflexology path to improve blood circulation.

Apart from that, interested birdwatchers would be seen with their binoculars to catch sight of interesting birds of various colours, while enthusiastic fishers would try their luck fishing at the lake. Nature put aside, remote controlled miniature boats could be seen whizzing through the lake on certain days and that usually attracts the interest of most visitors.