Imagine this scenario- people lining up with rows of colorful buckets to fetch water. Or better yet, furious residents cussing the Selangor state government for dry taps.
Sounds familiar? Obviously it would, as we just experienced painful water cuts a few months back.
And if the current raw water levels persist in the coming days and weeks, Selangor residents will, once again, be hit by a water emergency.
Yesterday, the Sg Selangor dam continued to register a fall in raw water reserves, recording its lowest reading ever at 76.69 million cubic meters.
This is equivalent to 33.46 percent reserves which is about two percent short of hitting the Selangor government’s arbitrarily determined critical cut off point of 30 percent.
The state initially used a critical cut-off point of 37 percent in determining water rationing in March 2014.
While the Selangor state government has conveniently tweaked the math, Lembaga Urusan Air Selangor or LUAS notes that the raw water reserve levels have already reached a critical stage.
In the next days, as people return from their Hari Raya break, the reserve levels would dip further as a result of higher consumption.
This situation will be made worse if there is no rain around the catchment area.
Water professionals suggest that the drop in reserves to the critical level of 30 percent could be reached by next week and the existing raw water reserves would be used-up in the next 3-4weeks.
To complicate matters further, recent cloud seeding exercises have not proven successful in replenishing the reserves dramatically.
While the impact of cloud seeding is yet to be seen, time is running out for the state.
The Meteorological department has ruled out rain in the next two months.
And therefore the state has been using ex-mining ponds as the alternative source to meet the shortfall in raw water reserves.
Since February 2014 the state has been using ponds closest to Sg Selangor. But water in these ponds have now been depleted.
I understand that new ex-mining ponds have been secured around the same vicinity.
However doubts have been raised about the capacity of ex-mining ponds at Bestari Jaya to sufficiently compensate for the short-fall in dam reserves, given that Sg Selangor dam discharges about 400million meters cubic water on a daily basis to the river.
Thus the state government has to be transparent on the number of ex-mining ponds used and potential volume of water secured from these ponds to meet demands.
Given the non-transparency on this issue, it is difficult to ascertain whether sufficient supply is available.
Furthermore, low water flow in a drought period could lead to heavy metal contamination of the river and drinking water.
This far, the state and Dept of Health have not publicly disclosed the Drinking Water Quality Standards findings undertaken during the drought period.
Until a public disclosure is made, drinking water from Sg Selangor should be treated as unsafe for consumption.
The state government has also not rolled out a plan of action to manage the water emergency in the state.
It keeps repeating the all too familiar mantra of ‘no rationing’, without explanation. This is worrying.
The National Water Services Commission or SPAN, as a water regulator, has a legal and regulatory responsibility to intervene in the face of a water emergency in the state. It cannot behave as a by-stander and expect the water emergency to evaporate. Nor should it wait for the state to extend a formal invitation to help resolve the problem.
It has to ensure that emergency Standard Operating Procedures are put in place and followed.
As an urgent measure, it has to ban all car washing activities, including water bottling and instead begin water conservation education in the state.