ANNUS horribilis it has been. This year will surely go down as one that destroyed the 2020 national water vision of providing clean water for all.
Yes, if a Malaysian Water Partnership document is right, on a day in June 1999 at a visioning process meeting, policymakers converged, where they are wont to, and drafted a national water vision as part of Vision 2020. Water for people. Water for food and rural development. Water for economic development. Water for the environment.
With Vision 2020 thrown away with the bath water, so it appears was the national water vision. Just look at us. In the year of Vision 2020, we have had 20 days of major water disruptions, most of them caused by polluters.
As this Leader goes to press, some taps remain dry. No standby plants. No alternative sources. As acknowledged by the secretary-general of the Environment and Water Ministry, Datuk Seri Zaini Ujang, mitigation measures are five years too late. All we get are the federal-state squabbles as to who is to do what and where.
In the meanwhile, it is 20th century tankers and lorries to the homes of the disgruntled, who, in 19th century fashion, wait buckets-ready. And they are plenty. All this after 63 years of independence?
This is more of a Malaya than Malaysia. The people have had enough.
Every time our rivers are polluted, we hear ministers, water authorities and regulators threaten polluters with amendments of this and that law. And then nothing happens. Enough is enough. This is not the first time our rivers are being contaminated.
For decades, our river systems have been polluted. And for that many years, the criminals have got away. Those who were caught have been let off lightly. Should we be surprised that the criminals return to do it all over again? We have seen better soap operas.
The government needs to do two things. One, take immediate term actions. Come down heavily on the polluters. State authorities are floating the idea of a maximum fine of RM1 million. This is inadequate. Being businesses, the factories can buy their way out of such low fines.
Stiff penalties and long prison terms must be imposed on the directors, shareholders and management of the factories. Long stop work orders and permanent shutdowns must form the menu of punishments. No factories must be allowed to operate near rivers. Relocation of factories must not be delayed. Relocation mustn't be seen as a go-ahead to pollute the new site. Factories must have safe waste disposal systems in place before they are allowed to operate.
Two, the government at the federal and state levels need to go back to the drawing board for the vision of getting clean water to all with zero disruption. Ideally, this will require a single river basin authority. This is difficult to do in a federation such as ours. Happily, there is something next to the ideal: integrated river basin management that is both federal and state, with lots of cross-sectoral coordination mechanisms thrown in. Somewhere, there must be law and technology.
These ideas aren't new. They are three-decade-old ideas thrown away with the bath water of Vision 2020. This body, whatever shape it takes, must ensure that clean water is on tap every day in every home. Anything less will mean the governors have failed the governed.