Save Water, Save World

By Toh Ler Kang

2013-121749

Topic: Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment

As we know the problem of water shortage is occurring on all around the world now. There are 783 million people unable to access clean water on this earth, while African occupying the most with the numbers of 345 million. Besides that, more than 3.4 million people are died in water, sanitation, and hygiene related causes. Somehow, most of the Malaysia citizens didn’t realize the seriousness of this issue, they don’t restrict themselves on using water.

As a minister of Natural Resources and Environment, I would like to bring out this issue to the public let them realize what they had done for past few years.

“Malaysian wasted the most water compared to nearby country. In an average, a Malaysian uses 226 litres of water per day. It has a very big difference compared to 155 litres in Singapore and 90 litres in Thailand” said New Sunday Times in 2010.

 According to Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) and the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, 70% of households found out water leakage in their house but almost 50% of them didn’t take any action to fix the leaks. Besides that, 70% of households didn’t installed dual-flush system (flush toilet which using 2 buttons to flush with different level of water) and more than 70% didn’t have the habit to collect rainwater and recycled water to flush toilets. 40% of households didn’t use controlled shower heads. 80% didn’t collect raining water for gardening. It is disappointing that 70% of households didn’t wish to reduce water usage for coming 3 years.

This pie chart shows the Domestic Water Consumption Study on every household in 2007.

“A consumer only needed 80 litres of water per day, including 3 litres for drinking to sustain a reasonable quality of life,” said Fomca president Datuk N.Narimuthu.

To prevent this issue from getting into a worse circumstance, I am here to suggest some method to reduce water wastage:

     1. Leaking taps checking – Fix the leaking taps once you find out, 2,000 litres water can be wasted if you didn’t figure out in a month. This also can be prevented by not turning taps off too hard otherwise the washers inside the tap will be damaged.

2   2.Leaking pipes checking – Check water pipes 2 weeks per time. When you find out there is a leakage on water pipe, repair it immediately. Water pipes can be found out around your house, for example near to water heater, near to washing machine, and on the ceiling. We cannot foresight when the water pipes will leak water, so it’s better to examine the water pipes rather than do nothing when you are free.

Figure: The Leaking Pipe.

3   3.Install dual-flush system – this system helps to save up to 68% water compared to a conventional low flush toilet. This flush toilet can clean the waste with low water volume press key and this helps us to save water efficiently.

Figure: Example of Dual-Flush Toilet.

4.      Rainwater and recycled water collecting – it’s easiest and most convenience way to save water. This only requires some containers to store or collect water.  The collected water can be used for gardening, car washing, and toilet flushing.

Figure: One of The Way To Collect Rainwater.

5.      Build up water efficient behavior – it’s very important to every human being to build up this behavior no matter you are a child or an old man. As you building up this habit, the usage of water will be decreased apparently. For example, turn off the water tap while you are brushing teeth. You just need to wet the toothbrush before brushing your teeth and fill up a glass of water to rinse your mouth. In addition, full load your clothes into washing machine before washing and use the economy mode, this may help you to save water and electricity.

Reference:

1   1. MALAYSIANS waste a lot of water - Wat-er waste (20010, October 8). In Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA). Retrieved October 20, 2013, http://www.fomca.org.my/v2/index.php/fomca-di-pentas-media/fomca-di-pentas-media-2010/318-malaysians-waste-a-lot-of-water-wat-er-waste

2   2. Water Facts; Water. (n.d.). In water.org. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

3   3.Water saving tips. (n.d.). In Sydney water. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from http://www.sydneywater.com.au/sw/water-the-environment/what-you-can-do/water-saving-tips/index.htm

4   4.Sara, E. (n.d.). How the Dual Flush Toilet Handles Waste. In HowStuffWorks. Retrieved October 20, 2013, http://home.howstuffworks.com/dual-flush-toilet2.htm