Strategies to Enhance Water Demand Management in Malaysia
implementation has not been significant from the water supply management aspect. This is due to several reasons particularly the need to provide basic infrastructure for the population and industry in a developing country and against the backdrop of plentiful water resources. As the country progresses towards a developed high-income status nation and as water demands increases against lessening available unregulated flows, the need now is for a greater emphasis on WDM. 1.2 Defining Water Demand Management General WDM as a subject is traditionally under the domain of the water supply sector. However the principles of WDM are also practiced by other water sectors, particularly the agriculture sector for the irrigation of paddy and non-paddy sub-sectors. In the agriculture sector, instead of the term WDM, “Water Saving” is more commonly used. A major aspect of water management is managing “Supply” and “Demand”. Managing supply to meet demand (i.e. “Water Supply Management” (WSM)) is always in tandem with managing demand to meet the limitations of supply (i.e. “Water Demand Management” (WDM)). However, in Malaysia, the relative level of emphasis on WDM has not been as significant as that for WSM compared to developed countries. There are two major reasons for this. One is that as a developing country, the emphasis on WSM is necessary to satisfy the basic social and economic needs of the population. The other is that the water resources availability has always been far more than the demands of the two major water users i.e. the water supply and the agriculture sectors.
The situation has changed considerably since the early days of development. Malaysia is already on the verge of achieving a developed and high-income nation status by 2020, just five years away. The socioeconomic landscape has transformed from a low population living in a simple economy and lifestyle to one that has grown to 31 million (2015) and projected to increase to 42 million (2050) in a more diversified and complex economy as well as with affluent lifestyles. Water demands from the two major sectors — water supply and agriculture — have increased considerably in tandem with this change from 14,789 mcm in 2010 to 18,250 mcm in 2050 (NWRS 2012) and the available unregulated flows continue to decrease with some states on the Peninsular already being in deficit stages. Recent events of water stress situations have shown that such impacts on the socio-economy of the country could only be more severe in the future if nothing is done to change the water management approach of the country. More so, when the impact of climate change is projected to induce extreme climatic situation more frequently than before. In managing such situations, one of the ideas promoted by water managers and concerned public is for more emphasis on WDM. This is the subject of this Study with the main objectives to assess the needs and to develop strategic action plans for its implementation for the future water management of the country. There is no formal definition for “Water Demand Management” in Malaysia. In Malaysia and in many countries around the world, WDM is more a subject within the domain of the water supply sector. The definitions often cited within this sector can be summarised as efforts by the water supply developers 3