penangites ‘water-happy’

reference my previous post about a water shortage in years to come, particularly in the klang valley, malacca and penang.

i was very surprised to find out that penangites uses an average 400 litres of water per person daily compared with the national average of 300 litres.

really? penangites used so much water? highest among all the states?

penang water watch (PWW) president prof chan ngai weng said most of the water wastage are through flushing, watering and washing.

i guess this is true.

flushing. toilet flushing? well i heard somewhere that a lot of water were being used during a toilet flush. in our house, when we do ‘small business’ (that is, pee!), we never flush the toilet… we manually use a small pail of water to ‘flush’ instead. this way, we know it saves water.

watering. watering of plant i guess. yes i suppose many people, esp. those with gardens, uses lots of water when watering plants, esp. if they use hose.

washing. ahh… women washing dishes while letting the tape water runs, children brushing teeth letting the tap water runs, men washing thier ‘second darling’ (cars!) with a hose of water instead of pail of water – yes all these contribute to water wastage.

oh since penang is famous for its good food and everywhere you go, you will surely bump into restaurants or food stalls, means these restaurants/food stalls need to use water to wash thier dishes and food, so i guess maybe this is one of the reason penangites are top on water consumption!

anyway, i agree with the suggestion that a higher tarrif on water be imposed on those who used above a certain limit of water. the more you use, the more you pay, simple as that. oh dear me, but IF higher water tarrif is imposed, this will only give an opportunity for some rakyat (esp. NGO) to go on street protest! (as this seems to be the norm or the ‘cool’ thing to do these days, i notice.)