Almost one million people prepare for dry days in Malaysia's biggest drought
U.S. Water News Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Buckets are flying fast from supermarket shelves across Malaysia's largest city as nearly 1 million people stock up on water just before taps in many neighborhoods run dry.
Residents say their preparations for a recent weekend -- when supplies were to be cut to carry out repairs at a major water treatment plant -- stem from memories of a miserable six months of severe water rationing in 1998.
Then, a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon caught authorities unprepared, swiftly depleted water reserves and left nearly 2 million people in Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs without running water for days at a stretch.
Despite assurances that the water cut starting last weekend should last only two to six days and is necessary to ensure future supply, nobody wants to be taken by surprise again.
``My family already has eight big buckets full of water,'' said Leong Ching Ling, a resident of the high-lying Taman Desa suburb, where water pressure might take a week to return to normal. ``We're now washing all our dirty laundry and mopping all the floors, just in case.''
The luxury hotel where Manchester United is staying ahead of a friendly match against Malaysia promised that tanker trucks and other backup supplies would assure that the soccer superstars are able to take a shower.
``We have made all the necessary preparations,'' a manager at the 480-room Palace of the Golden Horses hotel said on condition of anonymity. ``There will is no problem with water supply. The Manchester team will have no worries.''
Since announcing the disruption last week, waterworks officials have promised to dispatch tanker trucks to affected areas, where residents can queue up -- like they did almost every morning three years ago -- with jerricans and pails to collect clean water.
The trucks will also provide water to storage tanks in hospitals and fire stations. Back-up supplies will be available from water treatment plants on Kuala Lumpur's outskirts.
The cut will enable 130 engineers to replace corroded pipes, install new pumps and clear sedimentary crust in the tanks of the 30-year-old Sungai Langat treatment plant, which supplies 477 million liters (126 million gallons) of water daily to Kuala Lumpur and neighboring Selangor.
Officials say this figure is 25 percent more than the plant's designed capacity, but only 15 percent of Selangor's daily water production. The plant will close throughout Saturday and the repairs should cost about 3 million ringgit $789,000.
``We have been delaying it for the past two years,'' said Samy Vellu, the federal works minister. ``If we delay any longer, the plant may have a breakdown and we may face a more serious problem.''
Authorities have toiled to boost storage and distribution facilities since the 1998 crisis, which showed water infrastructure lagged behind other areas of Malaysia's breakneck development over the past 20 years.
The crisis angered Malaysians who thought officials had learned from an acute yearlong shortage in Malacca state, 93 miles south of Kuala Lumpur, in 1991. The depletion of the state's reserves occurred after authorities overestimated post-drought levels at a dam.
The government often warns that despite the high rainfall that feeds Kuala Lumpur's four main reservoirs throughout the year, massive demand and wasteful practices are a heavy burden on water stocks.
But rationing is rare in this Southeast Asian country, where temperatures soar to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Many Malaysians bathe twice a day and drink lots of water.
Opposition leaders protested earlier this year when the government announced water price hikes of between 20 percent and 75 percent in the Kuala Lumpur region.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the increase -- the first in a decade -- was ``unavoidable'' because of rising water costs and new projects. But the opposition accused authorities of inefficiency and poor conservation campaigns.
Many people just want the government to guarantee they won't suffer a repeat of the 1998 crisis, which forced many restaurants and laundries to close.
``No water, no business,'' said Foong Fang Keong, an employee at the Wash-In Dry Cleaning shop. He claimed the business would lose $526 per day if its reserves run out.
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