On October 31st, 2006, the government announced that on November 1st onwards, the residents in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor will have to pay water tariff hike (depends on usage) between 13.7% to 17.5% for domestic consumers and 15% to 18.8% for commercial customers.
First of all, I hate it when they always announce it at the very last minute. Like petrol hike, they like to officially announce it on the same day the price increase, at 12:00 midnight. And then, same thing for water tariff hike. Why can’t they just announce it earlier, so at least domestic consumers and commercial consumers can at least plan for it? Worse of all, according to the news, the price hike is to let the people learn how to save on water.
I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of reasons to consumer water.
Health Reasons
I drink at least 8 glasses of water, according to doctors’ prescription, and when I go out to have tea with friends, I order teh tarik (pulled tea), teh o’ limau ais (iced lemon tea), or something else to quench my thirst while I discuss about the world economy, the weather, the traffic, and something important with my friends. Let’s not forget the daily dose of caffein (in the form of java) that is critical for me to function correctly. So I consume lots of water in a day, and are they saying that I should drink less water, against doctors advice?
Food Consumption
Let’s face it, we need water to rinse and cook the rice. We need water to wash the vegetables we bought from the market since they were covered by chemicals. I admit that I don’t cook at home, and we always eat out. But then, now the meals that we order will be more expensive because the vendors will definitely increase the price in order not to make loss. Who in the right mind would want to be in a business that’s loosing money? So are we suppose to eat less because of all this? Or worse, are we not suppose to clean the food that we consume in order to save water? I am not fancy about the idea of eating half-cooked rice for sure.
Hygiene Reasons
I bath at least twice a day. Once in the morning to keep myself fresh to get a good start for the day, and at night to wash myself clean after full day of hardwork. So should I bath less to save water? And then, after expelling the waste, I like to wash the orifice because it is cleaner that way. So should I stop washing my ass to save money? And then, even though I shut all the windows in my house, ALL THE TIME, the floor is always dusty, so that means I have to mop the floor weekly as well. Should I stop cleaning my house just to save water?
Appearance Reasons
Due to some unknown reasons, Kuala Lumpur and PJ area are always dusty. Actually, almost everywhere is dusty. And then we have to thank some spastic fuckwits who burn down the jungle in Indonesia because we just had a haze attack in Malaysia lately. So I have to wash my car once a week since it is the second biggest purchase I made (after the house). Its a no-brainer that I want to keep my car in good condition, like washing it weekly, keeping the radiator filled, filling up the windscreen washer reservoir. Should I stop washing my car just for the sake of saving water?
Other Reasons
We have to change clothes everyday, and we are not wearing disposable clothes, so we have to wash our clothes. In a normal family (with just 3 members including Fluffy), we cannot avoid but to wash our clothes at least once a month. I don’t think I will get into the process of washing the clothes but rest assure that the process requires a lot of water. Are we suppose to stop washing our clothes and start buying newspaper to cover our body? (Or are there any disposable clothes available in the market?) Oh! How about Fluffy? He needs to bath weekly also.
Now, do you see that I have all the reasons in the world to consume lots of water every month?
Actually, I don’t care about the price increase since my monthly water bill isn’t so high, and let me declare that I am not against the water price hike. But what I am against are that they should provide us with better quality water and they should have announced it earlier, instead of last-minute call on conference in the evening and say, “Hey! Guess what? We are going to increase price tomorrow!” I am very sure the percentage of increase is not something random, and they have done a thorough study about the consumption and the percentage of increase. Why afraid of announcing it earlier so that the residence in the affected area are better prepared?
Also, let’s not get into the topic of how we should save water. If the raw food that we buy isn’t covered by chemicals, we don’t have to wash it few times. If the environment isn’t so dusty, we don’t have to clean our house or car so often.
Better yet, if the water company wants to charge us a higher price, please go ahead and I will support that decision without hesitation. but make sure the fucking water isn’t dirty. The water that we consume everyday can be damn yellowish at times, like mud, and with a strange smell. Of course, adding more chlorine would solve the problem but that’s affecting our health! So if you want to charge us higher, then please spend those money on improving the water system so we all can enjoy better water, not those yellowish water with strange smell.
Actually, if they want to solve the water problem (price wise), they can always charge Singapore a higher price. (I am not going to discuss this further so just let this end here. I don’t want my blog to be filled with politics.)
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