‘First World’ and no water don’t mix
And what “world class” when we can’t even have water flowing through our taps? What kelas dunia when there is an image of “dried up” residents running after lorry tankers, buckets in hand?
Syed Nadzri Syed Harun, The Malaysian Reserve
At the height of the water crisis that hit Malacca in 1991, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik declared that although he was not responsible for the fiasco, he was accountable for it. Those were not just a play of words from the chief minister at that time. It was, I believe, quipped in a true sense of owning up to the liability as a person in a position of power, of sheer torture felt by the people in the state who had to be without proper piped water supply for months.
It was followed with a revamp of the state water management not long after that. The Durian Tunggal Dam managed by the Malacca Water Authority had dried up without warning, causing 600,000 people to suffer. And as a reporter based in Malacca, I saw how they suffered.
Now 22 years on, I began to see over the weekend a reappearance of the dreadful nightmare when more than one million people in the Klang Valley had no water supply in their homes and offices because, as everyone was told, there was a diesel contamination along the supply line. Is anyone accountable? Or responsible? Please don’t say the situation is unlike Malacca as it is not expected to be prolonged.
The truth is it is worse. And please have a sense of accountability or responsibility, because the incovenience, anguish and distress when taps run dry without any notification is unbearable. Just imagine if you have a family of six, including babies. You turn on the tap first thing in the morning to prepare breakfast and there is no water. And you live in a flat on the sixth floor.
I saw that before in Malacca and I am seeing it again the last few days in the Klang Valley, a modern metropolis that is often said to be in the “First World” league. Pardon me? First World and no water just don’t connect.
And what “world class” when we can’t even have water flowing through our taps? What kelas dunia when there is an image of “dried up” residents running after lorry tankers, buckets in hand?
I passed by a neighbourhood restaurant in Subang Jaya early Saturday which serves delectable thosai and roti canai and what I saw was two or three of its staffers standing just outside the main door, staring blankly outwards with the entire shop in darkness probably to signify that there was no business for the day.
My greetings to them was answered with a grunt. I saw a laundry shop a few doors away that had its shutters closed although it was already past opening hours. The same with the hairdressing salon in the block. I saw a 7-Eleven store that had more customers than usual. I went inside and noticed that all of those queuing up at the cashier’s counter were buying bottles of water, including a grandmother who could hardly carry two 1.5-litre bottles on her own.
