Recently I was asked by my constituents to meet them. The first sight which welcomed me as I approached the place was rows of colored buckets lined up. When I got closer, I saw angry faces.
This is because water rationing is cumbersome and indefinite water cuts are not working.
And the people are not all that wrong in their anger and frustration.
After one month of water rationing the government only managed to save a nominal seven percent.
Consumption of water is at 2,944,000 litres per day. Savings of seven percent of total consumption after water rationing equates to a reduction of 206,080 litres per day. In short, a nominal amount.
The government’s strategy is clearly not working. Households are merely rescheduling their water consumption.
The Selangor state government including SPAN and Syabas have taken the lazy way out by resorting to water rationing. And this highlights the authorities’ poor planning ability and political will.
Residents in high rise apartments, old folks and pregnant women are paying the price for both the federal as well as state government’s haphazard plans.
Water problem is here to stay with climate change. As such forcing people to deal with water cuts is not the solution.
Instead, the government, should look into educating the people. The state needs to use both the electronic and print media to create awareness on efficient use of water.
The Malaysian house hold is using far more water then what is recommended by the UN.
Malaysians use 500 litres of water a day, compared with 155 litres in Singapore and 90 litres in Thailand.
The UN recommendation is about 200 LPD.
We can all do a bit of lifestyle changes to tide over the fluctuating weather patterns, resulting in dry spells. In October 2010, the New Straits Times reported that a shocking 70 percent of those surveyed said they were not likely or not very likely to reduce water usage in their homes in the next three years.
Priority in any water rationing activity is to limit the use of processed water for non-critical activities such as car washing and gardening. Processed water should be used for cooking and drinking.
For example, even if the cars being washed were to be halved to say half a million a week, the amount of water being used daily for that purpose would be 1.75 million litres per day.
Stopping cars from being washed saves up to eight times more water compared to water rationing.
Water of about 3 million litres per day is conserved. Because 1 million cars x 25 litres for 1 car wash equals 25 million litres per week, which works out to 3.5 million litres per day.
Therefore, an advice should be made to the public to stop the washing of cars for the time being.
Despite recommendations by NGOs, there is a lack of political will on the part of the federal and state governments to stop commercial development in water catchment areas and start doing rain water harvesting. Catchment areas should be gazetted urgently.
Both governments cannot play stupid anymore. They must enact laws and regulation to support rain water harvesting as a matter of priority given that we might be facing another drought between the month of June- September 2014.
Rain water harvesting can be used for non- essential activities such as watering plants, washing clothes, toilet flushing and washing cars. It could save up to 70% of water usage in a household and could potentially reduce household by 40-50 percent.
Water audits should be made an urgent requirement for homes, factories and offices including government departments, where governments will look at water consumption in these places to ensure water is efficiently used.
Auditors will also recommend changes in faucets and equipment in order to use less water.
These audits could contribute to a reduction of water consumption by identifying leaks and recommending water saving ideas.
If these suggestions and recommendations are implemented, we won’t see angry residents cursing at the long queue to fill water. And neither will people be burdened unnecessarily just because decision makers fail to put on their thinking caps.
There are many proven ways to handle this water crisis. Short cuts such as water rationing is definitely not one of it.