What waste, two trillion litres of water down the drain last year, literally

The amount of water lost last year could have supplied every family in Malaysia for 189 days. - Wikimedia Commons pic, November 14, 2013.Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor detects a pipe leak on its water distribution network every six minutes, said The Star today, making it a reason as to why close to two trillion litres of water was lost last year.

Putting this into perspective, the amount of water lost in 2012 could have supplied every family in Malaysia for 189 days or fill 797,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The Star also reported that the situation was going to get worse as much of the problem was due to the 43,890 km of ageing pipes around the country.

Syabas CEO Datuk Ruslan Hassan said the company had found 5,357 pipe bursts and 84,640 pipe leaks in its 26,000 km of pipes between November 2012 and October 2013.

“Many of the bursts and leaks were due to very old pipes, which are structurally weak, that burst under pressure or due to external loads,” he was quoted by the Star as saying.

“The leaky, ageing pipes are taking a huge toll on the country as more than a third of Malaysia's water supply is lost to seepage, poor water quality and frequent disruptions at the consumer’s end.”

The ageing pipes around Malaysia are made of asbestos-cement and have a lifespan of 30 years. Many of them have either outlived their usefulness or are getting there.

The Star said that the water loss had forced water operators to pump more to meet demand.

Malaysian Water Association president Syed Mohamed Adnan Alhabshi said it might take 20 years, and billions of ringgit, before Malaysia could replace all of its pipes with better ones.