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.