Rich and poor alike affected by Malaysian water shortage
Rich and poor alike affected by Malaysian water shortage
By Beth Duff-Brown
PUCHONG, Malaysia (AP): For nearly 2,000 people in this low- income housing project, going eight days without water simply confirmed their belief that Malaysian officials had forgotten them.
"The government gives priority to the rich, and we're neglected because we're poor," said Bak Itam, standing outside her wooden lean-to where she sells durian fruit and Flying Horse bleach.
Authorities finally showed up in this town outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, to fix a pump in the communal water tank. Until then, children stayed home from school, and fathers skipped work to help the elderly and women carry buckets of water from a nearby fire station.
As nearly 2 million people in the capital and its suburbs head into their sixth month of strict water rationing, few residents - rich or poor - go untouched.
Legends to explain the water shortage abound, such as one about hazardous ammonium in a city reservoir that forced authorities to turn off the taps. Or the one in which the government is hoarding water in advance of the prestigious Commonwealth Games next month.
Authorities have blamed a drought for depleting rain-fed reservoirs. But many residents and independent experts, noting that Malaysia contains many rivers, blame poor planning and mismanagement.
"You build the biggest airport, the tallest buildings, but they forgot about the water," said Joe Yusof, a retired army general in Ampang Jaya, a fashionable neighborhood whose residents go for days without water because their grand homes on hills overlooking the capital are fed by old pipes and weak pumps.
Some people say that Ampang Jaya is serviced by a disproportionate number of water trucks, with drivers more apt to stop in front of every home because they receive fatter tips. Still, the affluent neighborhood, with its retired military officers, expatriates, diplomats and wealthy Malays, offers proof that none are immune to rationing.
The water shortage finally wore down Canadians Shelly and John Smith, who live in Ampang Jaya, several doors down from Yusof. They teach at the international school here, where students share one bathroom and flush the toilets with bucket water.
"Anywhere else in the world, health officials would have shut it down," said Smith about the school.
The Smiths, who have two boys, moved last week to a house with better water pressure a few miles (kilometers) away.
"How much water is in this sucker? How many flushes?" Ms. Smith said she asked her new landlord when eying a newly installed water tank beside the house.
Despite hardships created by the shortage, the Smiths said they'll miss Ampang Jaya. The one virtue of rationing is that many neighbors here have grown closer, sharing hoses to tap the water trucks or holding one another's babies while they fill their buckets.
Things aren't always so friendly elsewhere in town, where the houses are closer together and the lines are longer.
Two people were recently injured in the suburb of Petaling Jaya after people objected to three men cutting into line at the water truck. The three offenders pulled out knives and machetes to confront the angry crowd.
But such a confrontation is rare among a typically placid people who are learning not to take water for granted.
In the muggy Southeast Asian country where the temperature averages 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius), Malaysians traditionally have bathed twice a day.
"A lot of people are saying we had it so good for so long, so this is God's way of saying, 'Hey, slow down, take care of your natural resources,'" said Yusof's wife, Nursia.