Malaysia must better manage our water and resources

2020 is the year chosen by the government to bring Malaysia into the exclusive club of developed nations. While many economic statistics can be used as a yardstick to measure our achievements, where are we truly heading towards?

Let us revisit the important elements that have silently supported our nation's growth. All together water, energy and the environment have played an important role in developing Malaysia as a nation with a robust economy. However, Vision 2020 was a general aim that came without detailed targets and how to strategically reach those targets.

More focus, therefore, was placed on the social and economic aspect of growth instead.

The basic elements of sustainable development include people (social), profit (economy) and the planet (environment). In order to have a balanced growth as a nation, we need to take into account the environment as a key player and partner.

The Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER) would like to highlight some key points that the government of Malaysia should consider to enhance their Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) initiative.

AWER is of the opinion that a committee which is neutral and apolitical be formed to ensure that the TN50 implementation is followed through from now until 2050. Also, we need to boost our research and development (R&D) to sustain the growth of Malaysia's manufacturing sector. Some of the solutions outlined by AWER will fit directly into increasing a ‘built-in’ R&D culture at all levels.

The water sector needs the following solutions:

• Centalised water management power - Raw water, treatment and supply of water as well as wastewater discharge must be placed under the federal government and report directly to the Malaysia parliament.In a national level survey conducted by AWER (using the Statistic Department's sampling methodology), 72.86 percent of Malaysians supported AWER's suggestion to remove state governments' power to water resources and place it directly under Parliament if the state governments fail to protect local water catchment areas.
• Water efficiency labelling and minimum water efficiency standards - To impose "static water efficiency" mechanisms in improving water demand management
• Upstream, midstream and downstream water resource development - To allow more water resources development in the midstream and downstream zones which will enable a reduction in raw water stress.
• Pollution reversal - Effective wastewater discharge standard based on pollution loading will be able to assist in pollution reduction as the carrying capacity of rivers are limited and over-burdened due to high population density and economic activity density.

The energy sector needs the following solutions:

• Centralised biomass processing plants - Sporadic location of biomass resources makes it harder to build bigger capacity renewable energy power plants. Biomass conversion, extraction and streamlining final output are vital to make economic sense and become a world leader in cutting-edge biomass solution. Malaysia has the highest potential in this aspect.
• Energy efficiency (EE) and Minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) - MEPS has been successfully implemented in Malaysia after AWER managed to convince the government of its long-term benefits. Expanding both EE and MEPS is vital to reduce energy use in electricity usage, transportation, and industrial processes.
• Profiled demand management - Smart Grids must be fully utilised to ensure detailed electricity demand profiling is done. With such detail data, specific demand management strategies for a different profile of electricity users can be implemented (SMART demand management).
• Energy price stabilisation fund - Energy resources prices are volatile and can be subject to cartel or monopolisation as Malaysia also depends on energy resource import. In addition to that, currency volatility will also be a major factor that affects affordable energy resource supply. Therefore, it is vital for Malaysia to establish an energy price stabilisation fund to assist the consumers to absorb sudden shocks in energy resources price. This fund is not a form of subsidy.
• 20 percent final energy use target for the transportation sector by 2050 - Public transportation, as well as EE & MEPS in the transportation sector, will be able to reduce the current 45 percent final energy use in this sector to 20 percent by 2020.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation is another pillar of TN50 that must be adopted as the changes in dry and wet seasons affects livelihoods and water security of the public:

• Flood mitigation - The rate of increase in rainfall patterns and flooding must be included in flood mitigation planning and implementation to ensure that these solutions withstand the increase in flood occurrences.
• Drought and dry season management - Dry season will be a major challenge to Malaysia as we move forward beyond 2020. Dam designs must be robust and flexible to ensure that we build dams in stages to optimise capital expenditure.
• Farm in building or verticle farming - Farm in buildings and nearer to demand zones must be implemented to mitigate food security risk. Coupling these farms with renewable resources and water recycling will enable sustainable and cost effective farming.
• Land-use planning revamps - rampant loss of forested areas will pose a huge water security risk to Malaysia. The increase in population and economic activities mandate more water catchment areas protection. This will also serve positively in managing local climate and reducing flood risk. 
• Developing a national resources stockpile - It is high time Malaysia begins national resource stockpile. Coal stockpiles have been successfully carried out in each coal power plants that reduced risks. Resources such as crude oil, natural gas and metals contribute significantly to the development of our nation. A detailed mechanism must be developed to ensure we are able to manage our resources responsibly and replenish our resource outflow due to export oriented economy.

Similarly, strategic national assets must be Malaysian-owned. Foreign ownership of such assets cannot be more than 49% and assets related to water services cannot be owned by foreign entities at all. Developing services sector related to a strong manufacturing sector is the smart way forward for Malaysia. This approach will be similar to nations like Japan, South Korea and Germany. Developing stand alone services sectors on its own may not be a long term solution and such sectors are easily replaced by other emerging economies.

The world's future will be controlled by 'big brothers' that have military might or resource rich or both. A new type of colonisation will take shape. Countries without military might and resource rich will be 'enslaved' using resources. Water, energy and environment are key pillars that we need to protect for the future generation's survival. In TN50's planning, a full chapter must be dedicated to these respective key pillars.- Mkini