By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 1 April 2016 – Malaysians should not wait until a drought or the El Niño phenomena to think seriously about managing water consumption, a forum and dialogue in conjunction with World Water Day was told.

Although Malaysia is regarded rich in water resources, that doesn’t mean we can use water freely, said Ahmad Rizal Khalit of the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, who was one of the panelists at the dialogue yesterday.

 “Malaysians are the greatest consumer of processed water in the world, 232   litres per capita per day. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends us to use 160 litres. Compare that to Singapore with 111 litres actual consumption per person per day,” he explained at the dialogue titled Water and Jobs,  organised by the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the ministry along with several non-governmental organisations.

He stressed that it is time for Malaysians to use water wisely as the country has targeted a reduction in water consumption to 180 litres per capita per day by 2020.

He gave some tips on how to save water, such as limiting showers to five minutes,  install aerators with flow restrictors on all faucets, don’t clean driveways or sidewalks with water, use a broom instead, and replace old shower heads with new low-flow shower heads, among other measures.

He added that more than four billion people in the world are currently facing a water crisis and this will only become worse due to pollution and climate change.

Some 300 students from 10 universities took part in the one-day dialogue which was moderated by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof Datuk Dr Mazlin Mokhtar and witnessed by the Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.