In just a few more generations, the planets population will reach an estimated nine billion. A scary thought? It should be. Where do we go for water when even today our taps run dry?

The United Nations actually warned that water will be the source of conflict in this century. By 2025, it is predicted that two out of three people on earth will live in water-stressed conditions.

We dont even have to wait 23 years from now to feel it. Malaysia, whose climate provides for rain all year round, is feeling the pinch of water shortage perhaps more due to mismanagement than to increase in demand. Clean and treated water is used for washing cars, watering plants and flushing toilets. Like many others around the world we have taken water for granted and now have to pay a price for it.

Let not the watery expanse of the big blue marble fool anyone as not all of it is drinkable water. A large percentage of the worlds water, up to 97.5 percent, is salty. Hence is it undrinkable before desalination. Only 2.5 percent of our water is consumable. And huge amount of this water is locked in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland. The rest exists in the form of soil humidity or in water tables which are too deep to be tapped.

In all, barely one percent of fresh water, or 0.007 percent of all the water in the world, is easily accessible. Although the ratio between fresh water stock and world population shows that there is enough waste to go around, up to eight percent of human beings are facing water shortage, and another 25 percent of the planets inhabitant are heading for the same fate.

Unsustainable usage

The average annual rainfall in Malaysia is estimated at some 990 billion cu m or 3,000mm. A large part of this will form surface run-offs and evaporate back into the atmosphere.

There are about 150 river systems in the country, with 100 in Peninsular Malaysia and 50 in Sabah and Sarawak. Most of the river systems in the peninsula originate in the main range, Banjaran Titiwangsa.

Groundwater resources in the country is an estimated 5,000 billion cu m, but only three percent of it is used for our raw water needs. The rest, 97 percent, is obtainable from rivers due to better accessibility and extraction.

However, with an increasing population, changes in land use, industrialisation and water pollution, much of the countrys water is being depleted through unsustainable usage, says Dr Salleh Mohd Nor, president of the Malaysian Nature Society.

Counter-measures have so far emphasised on managing water supply.

Current water catchment areas, for one, must be free from logging and other development. For example, MNS says, if there is logging in the Semenyih catchment area, it may also contribute to the water shortage in the Klang Valley. The mismanagement of land in the Ulu Langat water intake areas, saw factories placed beside the river, thus polluting it and causing shutdowns of pumps which affect hundreds of thousands of households.

Then there is that dicey solution  dams. The building of dams is purportedly needed to address the projected shortage in raw water needs of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur by 2008. Prophets of doom have warned Malaysians that any delay in addressing the impending water shortage is critical.

However, MNS says the need for dams has arisen in typical knee-jerk reaction due to various key issues not being addressed. It also insisted that the construction of more dams should only be carried out with full compliance of mitigative measures identified in the Environmental Impact Assessment.

A better way is to protect our water sources by improving on river-basin and watershed management, and controlling river pollution.

Controlling demand

However, Salleh says although managing supply is important, equally critical is the issue of managing demand.

In addition to wastage and inefficient water use, an astounding 37 percent of treated water is lost through leaky pipes, water theft, faulty water metres and hydrants. Water treatment-cum-supply concession company Puncak Niaga has estimated the cost of repairing and replacing the leaky old pipes in the city at a staggering RM1.65 billion. And this will take an estimated 10 years to complete.

The MNS believes that a combined approach encompassing education, incentives for water-saving devices, pricing systems to reduce excessive consumption and wastage is the solution.

Even the oft-dangled carrot today, groundwater as the new source to quench demand, is not practical. As much as groundwater tapping sounds enticing, as it is currently under-utilised at three percent, there is the risk that soil with subside when water is over-extracted.

The non-governmental organisation stresses that the problem will not be solved by merely finding new water sources.

Urbanites typically consume more water than the rural kampung folk. In the city up to 40 percent of water is used for cleaning purposes, 30 percent for personal hygiene, 20 percent for food preparation and 10 percent for drinking. Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have a population of 3.6 million people  16 percent of the Malaysian population. This high density is translated into residential units, transportation, consumer products, water and increase in sewage and pollution discharge. This great concentration has strained out resources. The possible solution  the decentralisation of population and water-intensive industry away from the cities.

Perhaps there should be some form of tax exemption for those who produce water-saving sanitation technology. Water-intensive industries could incorporate water recycling systems which would be cost effective in the long term.

What happened in 1997

In Oct 1997, the taps of thousands of homes in Kuala Lumpur ran dry. For about a week residents in as many as 25 residential housing estates and several industrial estates were left without running water when the two treatment plants in Cheras had to be temporarily shut down. Apparently, as a result of the monsoon rains, diesel fuel that had spilled into a quarry upstream had been washed into the raw water source  Sungai Langat.

Earlier, on Oct 7, 1997, the pumps had been stopped as well because of ammonia contamination, while a few days later on Oct 13 they were again shut down after both diesel fuel and ammonia had been detected at the intake point.

Investigations revealed that numerous industries, a huge municipal dumpsite and settlements (both legal and illegal) were located upstream along tributaries of the Sungai Langat and within the catchment area for the intake point.

Vital water facts

  1. A person can survive for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
  2. About 70 percent of human skin is water.
  3. Nearly 90 percent of the lungs is composed of water.
  4. Women and children in most developing regions travel an average of 10 to 15km each day to get water.
  5. Some 34,000 people die a day from water-related diseases like diarrhoea and parasitic worms.
  6. A person needs five litres of water a day for drinking and cooking and another 25 litres for personal hygiene.
  7. A dairy cow needs to drink about four litres of water a day to produce one litre of milk.
  8. Over one billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water.
  9. Water is a lethal carrier of disease  there are four billion cases of diarrhoea every year, resulting in more than two million deaths, mostly among children under five.

References : United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural Organisation and World Wildlife Fund for Nature

PRASANA CHANDRAN has worked as a journalist with malaysiakini and The Sun .