Percentage of households with water supply in Malaysia
Last April, Air Selangor announced a major water disruption across several districts in Selangor lasting four days, from the 24th to the 27th. This was due to upgrading work at the Sungai Selangor Phase 2 Water Treatment Plant (LRA SSP2).
The announcement was a hot issue as it was supposed to be the biggest water disruption in Selangor in recent years. Thankfully, the upgrading work was done within 24 hours and water supply was restored by the very next day.
Nevertheless, it serves as a reminder to Malaysians that not everyone has the privilege of enjoying constant water supply, particularly in the rural areas. Some rural folks experience “water disruption” daily, having to travel to the nearest water source such as a river or a well.
According to data by Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Kelantan has the lowest percentage of households with water supply, at 65.4% in 2016. In other words, one out of three households did not have access to water supply in the state.
The conditions in East Malaysia was not any better. Overall, the percentage of households with water supply in Sabah and Sarawak were 83.4% and 86% respectively. But when going into details for those states, there was a huge disparity between one district and another.
In Sarawak, households located at districts with better development like Miri and Bintulu have a higher percentage of water accessibility, reaching as high as 94.8% and 86.1% accordingly. While in a less developed districts like Baram, only 31.8% of households had water supply.
The same trend can be seen in Sabah, developed districts such as Tawau (95.7%) and Sandakan (94.5%) have a higher percentage of households with water supply, while Tongod had the lowest percentage at 48.6%.
However, in most districts in the Western Peninsular, more than 95% households had water supply.
The statistics were gathered in 2016. Do you think the current water supply condition in Malaysia has improved?