water crisis

Water crisis looms due to river pollution
Malaysia Today28 March 2006

Water crisis looms due to river pollution
Malaysia’s major cities including Kuala Lumpur and Malacca could face water shortages next year because of overburdened and polluted river basins, an official says.
Many of the country's 189 river basins suffer from surrounding areas' overdevelopment, dry weather and inefficient water management, likely to result in shortages, Irrigation and Drainage Department director-general Keizrul Abdullah said recently.
Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring Selangor state use some 2,500 million litres of water a day, with the demand expected to double by 2010, Dr Keizrul said.
But pollution from industrial wastes, sewage and sedimentation is lowering water volume in the rivers.
'Some river basins providing clean water to the people are already reaching their limits,' Dr Keizrul said.
He described the problem as 'a classic situation where rivers are under pressure from development'.
'We get sedimentation, we get floods, we get pollution, yet we are also taking more water from rivers, so there is less volume and, in the process, the pollution gets more concentrated,' he said.
He said the situation was compounded by dry weather flow problems and inefficient management of water resources.
He suggested the government should prioritise good river management as 97 per cent of Malaysia's water supply was sourced from its rivers and only 3 per cent from ground water.
He added that people should begin collecting rainwater for washing and cleaning their homes and that an acceptable tariff scheme should be introduced, with higher charges for consumers who use more water, to fund river rehabilitation work. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS