AWER: Rationing at a time when technology is so advanced is shameful

Water rationing should never happen in a country like Malaysia where it rains like cats and dogs every other day.

The Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER) president S. Piarapakaran said the government's lack of planning when it comes to water management has led to the current problem that the country is facing.

"Even during the early civilisation days where there is no technology, people know when a drought and dry season is coming and they build dams to counter it.

"If they can do it at that time, failing to do so now when the technology is so advanced is quite shameful," he told Astro AWANI.

Piarapakaran said part of the problem is more and more natural forest that control their own climate are being cut down.

"Water vapour from the forest moves up and it will rain by itself and flow into rivers.

"When we cut down forest, it is not a full entity. Its like cutting of a human's limb. It's incomplete. When forest is cut down, it directly affects the water cycle," he said.

He added that among the things that should be done immediately, is all state governments should gazette water catchment areas and ban any sort of human activities near the areas.

"Currently, not all water catchment areas are gazetted amd all state governments must gazette the water catchment areas (including forest, rivers, lakes, etc.) as permanent reserve by end of year 2015.

"These areas must also take into consideration of future need for raw water. No human activities should be allowed in these gazetted areas including recreational activities. As population grows in number, our demand for water grows as well.

"This also means the need to gazette more water catchment areas will increase in tandem with population growth to ensure raw water security," he said.

Piarapakaran said failure to take these sort of preventive measure may lead to worse situations such as higher crime rates as people are not afraid to fight for basic water.

Today, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim announced that the state is to enforce water rationing throughout the state tomorrow in areas where there has been disruption since Feb 7.

He said water would be rationed in stages so that all areas would receive supply every two days.

Khalid said the rationing would go on until such time that the state government felt the need to discontinue it with the advent of the rainy season, most probably at the end of March.

The Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan is also mulling water rationing in parts of Tampin and Rembau if the water level at the Gemencheh dam continues to dip.

He said the state authorities would be left with no other option but to do so if the dry spell continued.