Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) intends to focus more on water issues as access to water is a clearly a human right of all peoples, said commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan.

"We have to learn that nations and civilisations [have been reduced] to dust because they neglected their environment," said Hamdan during the launch of the Selangor Water Watch in Petaling Jaya this morning.

Hamdan, who is also the president of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations, said the initiative could well be the launching pad for Suhakam to focus more on water and environmental issues in the future.

He added that it is important for Malaysians to safeguard rivers as they form the main source of water supply in the country.

"We are very concerned about water issues as (they) are clearly human rights issues," added Hamdan who informed that Suhakam had received complaints from the public on water inaccessibility.

Gov't and public roles

The Selangor Water Watch is a joint initiative of Fomca, Education and Research for Consumers Malaysia (Era Consumer), Consumers Association of Selangor and Federal Territory and Klang Consumers Association to monitor water problems in the state and to educate the public about water conservation.

The initiative came about in response to the constant water shortage problems faced by residents in the Klang Valley as well as the deteriorating quality of water.

Among others, proposed activities include promoting water conservation and recycling campaigns and conducting research on methods to reduce non-revenue water in Selangor.

Non-revenue water is the difference between the amount of water supplied and the amount which is metered at consumer premises, often caused by system leakage or illegal connections.

Hamdan said the government must also retain management of water works nationwide in order to ensure that clean and stable water supply is available to all citizens.

"The government cannot privatise water provision services entirely as we have to ensure that everyone has access to water," said Hamdan in opposition to a recent initiative by the World Trade Organisation to include water supply services into the list of areas to be targeted for liberalisation.

"We are now selling water across states and nations. If this is done properly, we should not be squabbling about cost but availability," he said.

While it is important for the government to ensure availability, Hamdan added that consumers should also play a role in resolving water supply problems by trying to use alternative waters such as wells and collection of rainwater for daily chores.

RM684,000 daily loss

Earlier, Marimuthu Nadason, chairperson of the Selangor Water Watch organising committee, said consumer groups will start by monitoring several developments which could exacerbate water supply problems in Klang Valley.

These developments include the high rate of non-revenue water, the increasing number of golf courses and corporatisation exercise of the Selangor Water Works Department (JBAS).

Of the three million cubic metres of water consumed daily in Selangor, 40 percent of it is non-revenue water, said Marimuthu, adding that this amounted to RM684,000 in daily revenue losses to the JBAS.

Whereas for international standards, non-revenue water comprises approximately 20 percent of water consumed.

Marimuthu also expressed concern over the estimated 100 golf courses in the state which require large amounts of water for maintenance.

"A medium-sized golf course would require at least about 3,000 cu m a day which can cater for the consumption of 15,000 people daily," he added.

Marimuthu said that the Selangor Water Watch will also be working closely with the JBAS to ensure that the corporatisation exercise of the department will be done efficiently.

"If we look at Johor, the whole exercise failed because it was not able to manage water distribution efficiently and was not able to effectively collect its debts," said Marimuthu while adding that the state should follow Penang Water Works' corporatisation exercise which was successful because of its high level of customer service.

RM1.2 billion to replace pipes

In response to the issues raised by the consumer groups, JBAS director Che Mohamad Che Jusoh said his unit is currently engaged in replacing old pipes to ensure a more stable water supply to consumer.

According to Che Mohamad, water supply interruption is due to almost daily occurrences of pipe ruptures as the asbestos pipes which have been in place for the past 30 years are now aged and need replacement.

"Some 50km of pipes have to be replaced at the cost of RM1.2 billion... It will take us some three to four years to replace all the pipes," said Che Mohammad, adding that the RM40 million to RM60 million allocation by the government is insufficient for the department to carry out the task in a short span of time.

Meanwhile, to address consumer woes, the department has pledged to repair all ruptured pipes within 24 hours, he added.

It has also embarked on an exercised called 'Ops Cuci' (Clean-up Operation) in order to improve water quality but Che Mohamad conceded that the exercise is of limited effectiveness due to leakage problems in other sections of the water pipeline.

When asked, he said that although the government had announced that the pipes would not require replacement once the Selangor dam is completed, this is now necessary as the increase in water consumption has led to the increasing pressure on existing infrastructure.

He added that the JBAS is also required to comply by several conditions on operating the dam to ensure that water supply for irrigation purposes is not affected and that ecosystems along the lower parts of the river, such as the world-famous fireflies colonies in Kuala Selangor, will not be destroyed.