Water Resources Planning and Development

Water resource assessment for sustainable development and management

Kuala Lumpur, like other States in Malaysia, remains concerned over a possible water shortage in the near future in view of unevenly distributed rainfall and growing pressure on water supplies for domestic and industrial purposes. To overcome the problem in Kuala Lumpur, interbasin or interstate water transfers are expected to become an increasingly common feature of water resources development planning.

Kuala Lumpur is relatively small in geographical terms, and city developments are often small but intensive. Thus there are likely to be many development projects for which EIAs will not be mandatory simply because the relevant gazetted definitions are generally defined by area. It would therefore be prudent to apply the EIA procedure to all development in Kuala Lumpur, especially those in identified or listed environmentally sensitive areas.

Under the Seventh Malaysia Plan (1996-2000) a new national study will be undertaken to identify potential water resources, carry out feasibility studies of water resources development projects and formulate a long-term national master plan with an integrated approach to the development and management of those resources. The study will assess the quality and quantity of water in all States, including Kuala Lumpur, for domestic, industrial, irrigation, hydropower and other uses for the years 2000 to 2050. The results of the study are expected to enable the government to plan an overall priority programme for phased development of the recommended water resources projects.

Meanwhile, various prudent strategies and development programmes are being undertaken in Kuala Lumpur, including:

The control and reduction of non-revenue water through the rehabilitation and upgrading of existing water distribution systems;

The rehabilitation and upgrading of existing water treatment plants;

Improvement of systems supplying water to existing industrial areas.

In addition, under the Seventh Malaysia Plan, a continuing effort is being made to ensure that the development of water supplies is sustainable and balanced. For Kuala Lumpur/Selangor, two programmes with a capital investment cost of M$ 560 million have been proposed.

The current programme for rehabilitating and upgrading water supply systems, which is being further expanded under the current plan period, is to:

Restore the production capacities of water treatment plants to their original designed capacities and, where feasible and economical, increase that capacity through modifications or additions of treatment processes using appropriate modern technology;

Overcome any defects in design, construction, operation and maintenance, in order to improve the capacity, quality and reliability of treatment plants;

Reduce pollution of the environment;

Enable energy efficient operation of raw and treated water pumping equipment;

Incorporate any other modifications in order to reduce the cost of production and increase the overall performance of treatment plants;

Rehabilitate and upgrade existing distribution systems.