Strategies to Improve Water Scarcity

Executive Summary

This report is the summary of the definition, problems, limitation, consequences, government intervention to solve the issues and suggestion for improvements for the scarcity of water. The topic for my report is the scarcity of water in Malaysia. This report is about in the early March of 2014, there was a water crisis incident that had happened in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. There are 6 subtopics that will be stress out in this report. The first subtopic is about the definition of scarcity and the number of usage of water for Malaysia compare with other country. The second subtopic is about the problem. In this subtopic, we are going to discuss about the problem that faced by the society such as lack of water for personal consumption; Malaysia suffer from malnutrition, dehydration when undergoes scarcity of water. Furthermore, the third subtopic is limitation. In this subtopic we are going to discuss about why scarcity happened in Malaysia. Moreover, we are going to discuss about the consequences that will happened to the society. There will be good and bad consequences. This report will also reviews on how the government intervention to solve this issue. The methods are government can intervenes through planning, regulation, taxes, subsidies and partnership. In this case, the Malaysian government increases the budget to help to resolve the water shortage problem in Selangor; Malaysian government has also delay a project to save the water supply and Malaysian government has also cut down the water supply of the neighborhoods every couple of days. Lastly, as a conclusion of this report we had express our suggestion on how to improve the society to cut down the percentage of the scarcity of water.

Definition

In the early March of 2014, there was a water crisis incident that had happen in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Itsdeja vuall over again and this incident reminds us of the incident in Klang Valley on 1998. Furthermore, this incident happens because of the citizen in Malaysia need a lot of water supply every day until the level that the reservoir in Malaysia is not enough to fulfill all their needs. This is a very serious problem especially when we are dealing with the natural resources that produce by our mother earth. “According to studies, Malaysians use an average of 226 liters of water per person daily, which is way above our South-East Asia neighbors. Singaporeans use 154 liters (and intend to lower it to 147 liters by 2020) while the Thais manage with 90 liters.” (Meng, 2011). Due to this statistic there is no chance that the amount of water can fulfill all the wants of the citizen.

Problems

When this water crisis incident had happened, there are a lot of problems faced not only by the citizen but also by the government of Malaysia. Firstly, the problem faced by the Malaysian is there is not enough water supply for the citizen’s personal consumption and culinary purpose; this may cause the citizen in Malaysia suffer from malnutrition, dehydration or also dead. According to (Bins, 2012) “Some people can only survive for 8 to 10 days without water”. Moreover, the citizen can also experience disease problem due to not less water supply. This is because contaminated water carries a lot of virus and it can cause diarrheal diseases. Diarrheal disease alone can directly link to the deaths. “Contaminated water causes 80% of the health problems throughout the world.” (Globalwater, 2010). Poverty can also take place when water crisis happen. This is because, when the water supply is not enough to fulfill the citizens need, the whole society suffers. The children in Malaysia will lack of energy to go to school and study; professionals are also lack of energy for them to drive to work.

Limitations

Moreover, this water crisis incident happens because Malaysian citizen does not know how to appreciate the value of water supply. The price of water supply in Malaysia is very low and because of this, most of the people do not know how much water they are using until they receive their monthly bill and the water bill is just a small part of the bill. “Water is dirt cheap. So cheap that nobody pays any attention to saving it in the same way we would save electricity. In fact, the average Malaysian family’s water bill is only about 10% of its electricity bill,’’ (Dr. Chan, 2014). On the other hand, Malaysian government does not give any attention to the management of the water resources while we have plenty of rainfall to cover up for the lost that we might experience. The government did not plan for any alternative ways to survive from water crisis. “Our government does not have laws to safeguard water catchment areas and bar development projects in ecologically sensitive areas.” (MalaysiaChronicle, 2014).

Consequences

When this water crisis incident had happened, there are good and bad consequences. Firstly, the good consequence is that Malaysian will be more aware of the usage of water supply. Malaysian will be more aware the limitation of water supply in Malaysia. Citizen in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan will start to save water by using campaign. Furthermore, citizen in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan will also know the importance of the water to the society. The citizen in Malaysia will realize that without water, health problem will occur. In addition, water crisis can cause the water pollution to decrease rapidly because people will start to appreciate water and they do not want to suffer from water shortage again. Moreover, the bad consequence is that water shortage can increase the percentage of people pass away. The shortage of water will cause health problems such as diarrheal diseases. This incident can also decrease the production of crops. The shortage of water can decrease the crops production. Without water farmers won’t be able to produce enough food to sell in the market and because of this the price of food will raise rapidly and the demand for this food will be very low.

Government Intervention

Malaysia is a country that uses mixed economic system. All economic decisions are made partly by the government and partly through the market. For example, government can intervenes through planning, regulation, taxes, subsidies and partnership. In this case, the Malaysian government increases the budget to help to resolve the water shortage problem in Selangor. “Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on 2nd February an additional allocation of RM120 million to Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) to help resolve the water problem in Selangor.” (wordpress.com, 2013). Furthermore, Malaysian government has also delay a project to save the water supply. According to (thenutgraph.com, 2014) “Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk SeriPeter Chin, saying Selangor is due for a water crisis by 2014 if the current state government under the Pakatan Rakyat continues to delay land approval for the Langat 2 treatment plant to be built.” This project has been delayed and will be restart again on 2016. Lastly, Malaysian government has also cut down the water supply of the neighborhoods every couple of days. According to (themalaymailonline.com, 2014) “The rationing will see millions of consumers in the state receive two days of water supply followed by two days of dry taps to enable water to be conserved in the dams over the next two months.”

Suggestion

My first suggestion for Malaysia to improve the economics is that Malaysia government should understand the issue in the society now days so that the government can meet the needs of the citizens. Secondly, the Malaysian government should not separate from its currently economy system because the benefits are better than the problems the country is facing now; instead Malaysian government should focus on how they can to restructure it in order to enhance the chances of success. The restructuring approach can involves defining areas that businesses will have to invest in and areas that government will have to invest in. The end product will be an economy where all customers’ needs are well meet and equality establishing for competition and business growth. The conclusion is that mixed economy is the right choice for the economic growth of Malaysia as it serves the right background for understanding what should be invested and defining how such investment will be undertaken, and also providing the necessary resources for such investment because it is both the government and the individuals that combines to finance the production process.

References

1. Meng Yew Choong. 2011.Malaysia faces looming water crisis. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2011%2f3%2f22%2flifefocus%2f8192017. [Accessed 04 May 14].

2. Corey Binns. 2012.How Long Can a Person Survive Without Water? [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.livescience.com/32320-how-long-can-a-person-survive-without-water.html. [Accessed 04 May 14].

3. globalwater.org/. 2010.Why Water? [ONLINE] Available at:http://globalwater.org/whywater.htm. [Accessed 04 May 14].

4. Malaysia-chronicle.com. 2014.S’PORE MUST BE LAUGHING: A water crisis of Malaysia’s own making. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=232812:spore-must-be-laughing-a-water-crisis-of-malaysias-own-making&Itemid=2#axzz2zWgCEZLu. [Accessed 04 May 14].

5. wordpress.com. 2013.najib gives syabas another rm120million bailout?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://fabm.wordpress.com/tag/water-crisis/. [Accessed 04 May 14].

6. thenutgraph.com. 2010.Averting Selangor’s water crisis. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.thenutgraph.com/averting-selangors-water-crisis/. [Accessed 04 May 14].

7. themalaymailonline.com. 2014.In Selangor, taps to run only every two days. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-selangor-taps-to-run-only-every-two-days. [Accessed 04 May 14].

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