Water crisis: A test of women's strength and patience

The water rationing exercise is currently underway in some areas of the Klang Valley. However, the exercise seems like a test for the women, who are tasked with most of the major physical work.

This is due to the fact that Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SYABAS) tankers would often arrive in the morning, afternoon and evening when the men, usually the breadwinner of the familly, are at work. This leaves the women and children with the task of collecting water from the tankers.

Astro AWANI recently visited Puncak Baiduri Apartment, Cheras and interviewed a few of the housewives.

Norzimi Shaharin, 30, said SYABAS would arrive at their residential area three to four times a day. She would then fill five buckets with water during each trip. She has to do it alone because her husband is at work.

"The SYABAS tanker would come when our husbands are at work. That leaves the us, the housewives and several elderly women at home, with all the work. We also need to work fast as some of us need to send our children to school, cook and do some house chores," she said.

Norzimi said the tankers would also arrive at different times causing the residents to be on constant stand-by. She urged Syabas to provide a fixed timetable and adhere to it so as to not affect their daily routine.

"They would come at around 10am, 12 noon and 6pm but there are instances when they would arrive at 9am, sometimes much later. This greatly affects our daily routine. We are constantly on stand-by because of the irregular hours," she said.

Norzimi added there have been times when the SYABAS tankers arrived at 12 midnight. The workers would also sometimes refill the empty tank but there were times when the residents are expected to come down and collect water ourselves.

"Some of us might be too tired to go down. Those who are still awake will go down," she added.

Rosemary Phang, 58, echoed Norzimi's sentiments and agreed with the fixed timetable.

"Paste a fixed timetable at each block so that we don't have to wait, " said Rosemary.

She said that she is suffering from shoulder pains and needs to rely on her son to collect water.

"But if he is working, I have to go down or ask my relatives to help out," she explained.

Izadiah Che Dah, 65, also complained of fatigue. She actually lives in Seremban but currently resides in Cheras with her son during the water crisis.

"He is working so I have to help him. Otherwise who would collect the water for him?

"I admit that I get very tired. Every time I go down, I will fill and collect up to five buckets of water. But that is still not enough for our daily needs like cooking, bathing and washing clothes. Luckily I have this trolley so I bring it with me every time I go down," she added.

Like the saying there is a silver lining in every cloud, the hardships have also brought some goodness. The water crisis has brought the residents closer to each other where some are meeting other residents for the very first time after many years of living at the apartment complex.

"We don't really know each other because we would usually just stay in our homes and not mingle with one another. This crisis has enabled us to meet and chat with one another while we are queuing for water," said Norzimi.

She admitted there have been some quarrels in the past, but they are very rare.

"There have been cases where the men would trade punches to settle their differences but not if the quarrel is between a man and a woman. The quarrels were usually over issues such as jumping queue while collecting water," she added.

Rosemary said she was also impressed with the muhibbah spirit shown by her neighbours in this time of hardship.

"When the SYABAS tanker arrives, the security guards, SYABAS personnel or neighbours would shout 'Water! Water!'. We would just help each other out. It's really a muhibbah community as there are people of various races and religions here," she said.