Non-revenue water a serious problem that must be solved, says SPAN

PETALING JAYA: The water sector should be made a national security priority to strengthen the country’s water resources for the coming decade, says the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman.

"Non-revenue water (NRW) requires a lot of money. It is something that has to be resolved," said Charles Santiago.

"That is why I am proposing to the government to declare the water sector a national security priority. That is one way to prepare the country for the next 10 years," he said, adding that the idea was currently being looked into.

Santiago proposed that RM10bil be ploughed into the water sector each year to protect water sources and upgrade infrastructure which had to be done for the next three to four years.

"This is to ensure that we will have enough water for the next 10 years. That is something the Federal Government needs to come to terms with.

"This is an idea we are floating now," he added.

He said that given the climate emergency at hand, the faster the problem was acknowledged and resolved, the better it was.

Water and Energy Consumers Association of Malaysia president T. Saravanan said SPAN should focus more on the NRW as this was where the real wastage was.

"Even though the tariff is set to be raised, NRW is the thing they should improve on. The NRW should be audited by an independent agency as many are concerned that NRW has gone under-reported," he said.

NRW refers to water that had been produced but lost before it reached the customers.

On the national level, the NRW was at 37.2%.

Johor and Penang have the lowest NRW at 26.3% each, followed by Selangor at 27.8%.

This was followed by Perak (30.3%), Melaka (33.2%), Negri Sembilan (35.1%), Labuan (36.8%), Terengganu (38.7%), Sarawak (46.1%) and Pahang (47.7%).

The four states which had reported over 50% of NRW are Kedah (51.5%), Kelantan (53.7%), Sabah (55%) and Perlis (61.5%).