Questions and Challenges to Water Conservation in Malaysia

Question 1. Since the 1997/1998 El Nino water crisis, what is the status and progress of water conservation efforts carried out in the country with regard to the role of the government, civil society and others in the country in general, and in Penang in particular?

Answer: In Malaysia, as is in the world, water is widely predicted to be the resource of the 21st century. The availability of this vital essence of life has become an important issue in Malaysia in recent years. The El Nino in 1997/98 not only laid bare the fragility of our water resources, but also weaknesses in its management. Hundreds of thousands of people in many parts of the country suffered untold hardships of water cuts and water rationing for months. With the authorities acknowledging that the majority of our rivers have reached their maximum supply capacity and are polluted to some degree, the top-down approach based on “Water Supply Management (WSM)” has been proven inadequate to manage our water resources in a sustainable manner. One can only build so many dams on one river, and many rivers, according to the JPS have reached their maximum supply capacities. But dam building and water treatment construction continue to be the main focus of the authorities, not water education and conservation efforts. I am not saying that the former is no good and should be stopped altogether. At the very least government should build dams/treatment plants and carry out water conservation campaigns simultaneously. Currently, the money spent is like 99% in favour of the former, and water conservation campaigns are only carried out when there is a problem (e.g. El Nino or drought).

Click here to view the whole article.