NST Monday, April 16 2007

Letter to the editor from Loga Sunthir Veeraiah

Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (FOMCA), Petaling Jaya

SINCE Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that by-laws would be introduced to harvest, store and use rainwater, many parties have given their opinions. The Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) has not been in favour of the proposal.

In recent days, Malaysia has been facing intermittent water shortages, with reservoirs running low and plans being made to build new dams to ensure continuous water supply. Are these reasons not adequate for us to look for alternatives such as rainwater harvesting (RWH) to reduce water consumption?

The real benefits of RWH is not reduced consumption but the providing of alternatives to consumers. During the 1998 drought, tenants of high-rise buildings faced major problems not because of drinking water (due to the availability of bottled water) but because of the difficulty in hauling water from the tankers to their homes to flush toilets. Harvesting rainwater provides an integrated solution for water problems in the country. Installation of the RWH system also plays an important role in reducing run-off and erosion during the rainy season.

This means this system can be a solution for flash floods in urban areas. There are 500,000 RWH system in operation in Germany. In Hawaii, 60,000 people use RWH and in China more that 21 million people depend on RWH. RWH will be successful if properly installed, maintained and managed. Therefore, we applaud the proposal to introduce by-laws on RWH. This will ensure the proper installation and maintenance of the system to consumers to reduce water consumption.

Kudos to the Bandar Utama Group for installing a RWH system when they built the new wing of the shopping mall at 1 Utama and Centerpoint in Bandar Utama (“make the most of rain”) – Streets, NST, April 10). That system saves them RM300,000 or 30 per cent a year in their water bills.