adminKUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is not in the category of countries at risk of experiencing ‘water bankruptcy’ as is feared globally, but rather still has sufficient raw water resources.
Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, said the country’s real challenges currently focus on integrated water resource management, protection of catchment areas and efficiency of the delivery system.
He said Malaysia receives an average of more than 2,500 millimetres of rainfall per year with estimated renewable water resources exceeding 580 billion cubic metres per year, thus showing that the country does not face a physical water shortage.
“The country’s main challenge is not water shortages, but how we manage, protect and optimise water resources strategically to ensure the security and sustainability of long-term water supplies.
“Malaysia is not a country that will experience ‘water bankruptcy’, but without a comprehensive management transformation, supply pressure could occur in several areas by 2030,” he said, who is also the Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, in a statement here, Tuesday.
He commented this following a local media report quoting a water quality and water quality modelling expert, suggesting that the government, through PETRA, formulate a strategic plan to overcome the risk of a ‘global water bankruptcy’ situation.
The expert said that the term water bankruptcy does not just refer to a lack of water resources, but also involves aspects of water quality that are increasingly affected by pollution.
The media also reported that the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) warned that the world is entering an era of ‘global water bankruptcy’.
Elaborating further, Fadillah said that among the main issues that needed attention included diverse water storage management, encroachment on catchment areas, river pollution and lack of integration of alternative water sources such as groundwater, recycled water and rainwater harvesting systems.
He said that the dam’s current active storage is capable of accommodating water supply for up to 90 days, but the national Non-Reproduced Water (NRW) rate is still high, at around 34.3 percent, equivalent to approximately 6,000 million litres of treated water lost per day.
“If the NRW rate can be reduced to 25 percent, the country has the potential to save about two billion liters per day without having to build a new treatment plant,” he said.
He said the country’s water demand is expected to increase from approximately 19,372 million litres per day in 2025 to more than 25,000 million litres per day by 2030, thus requiring more strategic planning of new water resources.
Meanwhile, he informed that approximately 30 percent of the country’s 2,986 major river basins are currently facing moderate to serious pollution pressure due to industrial activities and uncontrolled land use.
In this regard, the government will accelerate the implementation of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach, in addition to strengthening water storage strategies through the construction of new reservoirs, increasing dam capacity and systematically mapping groundwater resources.
He also stressed the importance of using digital technology and artificial intelligence through the development of a national water sector digital hub in the near future.
“New financing approaches including public-private partnerships and performance-based financing will also be expanded to accelerate NRW reduction projects and the development of alternative water sources,” he said.
In addition, public communication programs will be intensified to increase public awareness of water consumption, given that Malaysians’ domestic consumption is still around 225 litres per person per day, exceeding the sustainable target of 165 litres set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He said that, in line with the aspirations of MADANI Malaysia, the implementation of strategies under the AIR 2040 framework is believed to be able to guarantee the country’s water security and position Malaysia as a hub of excellence in the regional water sector by 2040.
-Agency
