The word "issue" per se is enough to heave a sigh of dismay, at least for me. Water issues have never ceased to become the headlines of most local tabloids particularly from the month of February. The hottest water topic would be on how climate change being blamed for the drastically alarming drop of dam water in Selangor, the most populated state in Malaysia. In fact, human should reflect on their own avarice for resources before blaming Mother Nature for her revenge. 

The Malaysian's attitude of "taking without giving back" in water planning is sickening and consequently various water issues emerge: poor water resource management, detrimental and severe river pollution and clash between energy and water resource. Nevertheless, government and other bodies are playing their role in reviving this dreaded situation like introducing advanced water treatment technology and embarking on River of Life project. However, the extant of the predicted benefits has yet to be witnessed and will be proved as time goes on.

The statement "226 litres per person per day (LPD)" has become more and more prominent in all sorts of reading material on water topic. In fact, Malaysians are getting more jittery when slapped by the fact that such water consumption per person is even higher than lots of Europe countries. 

Selangor state is a good case study on water management. The current situation in Selangor is that we are not tackling the root cause – over-consumption of water resources. This scenario can be depicted by water planners' decision in committing considerable public funds to expensive water infrastructure to draw more water out from its natural cycle. For example, the on-going construction of the tunnel for the inter-state Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project, began on June 2009, which promises supply of 1900 million litres per day. What we need is an efficient plan to utilize resources in sustainable way, instead of end-of-pipe solution. 

For example, Water Demand Management – maximize beneficial use of resource while reducing the economic, social, environmental and sustainability impacts of its withdrawal. One of the benefits is to allow more water to be left behind the environment for ecological services to be sustained. This advantage leads to an economic return as a well-preserved environment will sustain various economic activities like eco-tourism, recreation and fishing. Many tend to misunderstand that rainwater harvesting as one of Water Demand Management?s approach. 

As a matter fact, it is not because consumption of water is not reduced at all. The only difference from the normal usage of treated water is the source. The root cause is over-consumption of natural water and it is ought to be overcome by reduction means instead of taking such detour. Thus, Water Demand Management is a set of measures that are put in place with the aim of reducing the total amount of water that is used. 

 

Besides, what leads to poor water management is also because of a myth:  in order for our GDP to grow, we need to resort to high water use. This can be denied by looking at developed countries like Hong Kong and US. In Hong Kong, water use remained constant despite GDP growth of 23% (1994 – 2000). For the latter, GDP growth climbed up to 250% at constant dollars (2000 US $) while water withdrawal showed no difference (1974 – 2000). If Hong Kong and US can do it, why can't Malaysia?

 

In total shows that Selangor itself needs 4390 MLD water supply. Unfortunately, the future of those rivers in supplying water is diminishing as various anthropogenic activities have polluted the resources. For example, Selangor River and Langat River basin is threatened very much by intensive land clearing, sand mining, pig farms, abattoirs, palm oil mills, industries, septic tanks, dumpsites, landfills which some of these result in untreated illegal discharge.

This scenario is also common in industrialized state like Johor and Penang. The number of clean rivers is declining and several rivers have been declared ?dead?, such as Sengget River and Ayer Merah River in Johor, Jelutong River in Pahang, Juru River and Prai River in Penang. Pollution that occurs in Pahang is inevitably related to excessive pesticides and fertilizers usage in agricultural farms. This is because heavy downpour or excessive watering can result in leaching of chemical into water bodies. 

Two issues will be highlighted in this section: mud flood at Bertam Valley, Ringlet, Cameron Highlands and construction of Baram Dam in Sarawak. In Malaysia, 9% of energy production comes from renewable source of hydroelectric power dam. The mismanagement on releasing the water due to exceeding water level at the dam has resulted in several casualties, destruction of houses and flood in Cameron Highland. 

As for the latter, it is currently a hot topic as objection from the people particularly the natives has begun to surface after people involved with resettlement due to Bakun and Murum Dam construction reveal their bad ordeal due to the government empty promises. Bakun and Murum residents were resettled to Aspa River (1999) and Tegulang (2013) respectively. Their claim on the unjust treat by the government is that there is no school, clinic, police station, agriculture department or government office as promised to the people before they move. In addition to that, there is no proper road infrastructure en route to Murum resettlement area. In fact, only mud road prevail. While people in Peninsula are wasting lots of water, the native at the east are in a deep conflict on losing their home for better electricity supply for future generation.  

 

The above three issues highlighted are just the few common ones. In fact, in Malaysia, due to rapid urbanisation and development, lots of hidden defects on Mother Nature have yet to be revealed. Hopefully, our leaders can realize about it before it's too late.

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/242579396_The_Need_for_a_Water_Demand_Management_Plan_for_Selangor_(And_a_Golden_Opportunity)
http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/index.php?option=com_content&id=1215

Picture 1: Mud flood at Bertam Valley, Ringlet, Cameron Highlands
Picture 2: Picture best illustrates the meaning of Water Demand Management. The wastewater (greywater) from hand washing is recycled back for toilet flushing use in Japan.
Picture 3: Malaysia LPD