Malaysia: No Water, No Life

Melati Mohd Ariff Bernama 17 Jun 10;

This six-part article dwells on several environmental issues namely global warming, water vitality, ecosystems, biodiversity and Green Economy. This is the second of the series.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Bernama) - While most people believe climate change or global warming as the number one environmental concern of the 21st century, there are some who feel that we have missed something more fundamental.

Thus for people like Dr Chan Ngai Weng, President of Water Watch Penang (WWP), when asked on the most pressing environmental issue that needs to be addressed urgently, 'water' was his answer.

"Without water, there is no life. No water, no food, no industry, no clothes, car or even computers because to produce all these we need water.

"For example to produce one medium-size car, we need 147,000 litres of water," said Dr Chan from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to Bernama recently.

As for Dr Chan, though climate change is a cause of concern, one could still survive with an increase in temperature up to 5 degrees Celsius by using air-conditioning, migrating to cooler areas or applying other suitable alternatives.

"However, there is no alternative for water," he pointed out.

WATER PROBLEMS

And speaking of water, Dr Chan is deeply concerned over the water issues in the country. A big question mark hovers over the state of water resources in Malaysia, namely the absence of a National Water Policy.

While most countries prefer to opt for decentralised water management, Malaysia on the other hand opted for centralisation of the water sector via SPAN (National Water Services Commission).

Also unlike many of the nations, Malaysia relies too much on building dams and treatment plants in meeting the demand for treated water.

"However, most rivers in Malaysia are nearing their maximum capacities and this mean no more dams can be built. But population, industry, agriculture and other sectors keep growing and water demand keeps increasing.

Malaysia, according to Dr Chan has reached the stage whereby we cannot keep on building dams.

"We need to address water problems from the Water Demand Management side. We need to teach consumers how to save water, reduce Malaysian per capita daily water usage from the current 300 litres per person per day (LPCD) to at least 200 LPCD.

"Singapore is only using 150 LPCD. Why should Malaysians be using 300 LPCD?

"We need to make it mandatory to save water or penalise water wasters. Our water tariffs are too low to encourage water conservation, no thanks to the heavy government subsidy, said Dr Chan.

Based on the National Water Resources Study 2000-2050, the nation's water requirement is expected to increase by 63 per cent from 11 billion cubic metre in 2008 to 17.7 billion cubic metre in 2050.

INEFFICIENT MANAGEMENT

S. Piarapakaran, Senior Manager (Environment, Energy and Water) of the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) told Bernama that the country lacks a holistic management in the water usage cycle.

There are different agencies involved in the process and integrated efforts are not in place.

"Sabah and Sarawak are also lacking in a set up like SPAN. The logging activities are not only slowly depleting raw water sources but also polluting the water. Logging in both states is basically carried out both legally and illegally and land is under the state government's jurisdiction.

"When inefficiency plagues the sector, due to the different implementing agencies that work without coordination, managing this precious resource becomes more difficult.

"While climate change gives direct impact to water sources, the inefficiency of the water management is causing more damage than the climate change," he said.

Water usage in Malaysia is basically divided into domestic sector (17 per cent), industrial (21 per cent) and agricultural (62 per cent).

VITAL RESTRUCTURING

Piarapakaran pointed out the pressing need for better water management system to protect the country's water resources.

"The raw water we consume is from the environment. We treat and supply it to all levels of consumers and finally produce wastewater.

"This wastewater needs to be treated before being discharged into the environment that has a limited carrying capacity," he added.

He cautioned the failure to plan and to protect the nation's water sources would only lead to water shortage and high water tariff.

Without a restructured and unified management, Piarapakaran pointed out that there would only be a blame game each time a water crisis occurs.

"We should also move away from blaming climate for everything. Our climate is synonym to flood and drought, and by including both situations in the planning process we can preempt a water crisis. Many developed nations have done this," he said.

POSSIBLE MEASURES

Piarapakaran who is also the Secretary General of Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (WECAM) said while climate change can cause direct impact on water sources, there are simple measures that can assist Malaysia to prepare itself from such crisis.

One of the first steps is to unify the water related activities under one ministry.

For such purpose, he said, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water is the most suitable candidate.

"This will help in holistic implementation and will allow a single entity to take full responsibility.

"This ministry should be given the mandate to manage the water sector as a whole and all agencies related to the water sector should be restructured under this ministry.

"In addition, the environment quality (raw water quality) benchmarked by the Department of Environment should remain under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the benchmark for drinking water quality should remain under Ministry of Health as this will help create cross checks.

"In this simple readjustment, the sector will be unified and efficient usage of water can be planned. Unifying them under a Cabinet Committee is not the answer because the implementation will not be done in an integrated manner," he explained.

UNDERGROUND WATER

However, WECAM according to Piarapakaran is not in favour over the proposal to extract groundwater as a solution to negate water crisis.

The core issue is that there is no solid evidence or statistics to prove groundwater extraction can be done in a sustainable manner.

"This is because sustainable groundwater is bound to the recharge rate, the rate of rainwater replenishing the lost groundwater.

"This is difficult to determine and fix. Therefore, we should keep the groundwater for the future generations. Moreover we have ample surface water to utilise," he added.

Dr Chan too echoed similar opinion on the extraction of groundwater. He said Malaysia should only turn to groundwater as a last resort.

"Cities like Bangkok and Mexico City are sinking because of extensive over-pumping of groundwater.

"What we should do first is to protect and properly manage our surface water supply. About 97 per cent of Malaysia's water supply comes from surface resources, particularly rivers.

"Better management of rivers, river basins and water catchments could avert a water crisis but this must go hand in hand with sustainable consumption.

"Malaysians, however, still have a lot to learn on this," he said.

-- BERNAMA