Imagine drinking water straight from the tap

PETALING JAYA: Water filters are sought after these days as consumers are wiling to fork out extra money for the assurance that they will be getting quality drinking water at home.

Content strategist Diana Abdullah, 34, often finds herself reminiscing about drinking straight from her New York apartment tap when she was a graduate student in the United States some years ago.

Diana, who is now working in Kuala Lumpur, rents a water filter for RM65 a month, but says that the quality is nowhere near the same.

“Having drinkable tap water should be a right, but it’s a luxury that few countries can offer their citizens.

“New York has world renowned water quality. I wish that we could have something like that in Malaysia,” she said.

She pointed out to those who could not afford to have an in-home filtration system and had to resort to boiling water before consumption.

“I hope the government can do something to improve our water quality so that even tap water can be drinkable,” she said.

Amanda Lim, 30, said she was wiling to pay extra to have a water filter in her home as she always found the water from the tap to be slightly yellowish at times.

“I don’t dare drink water straight out of the tap as I am not sure of the quality,” the business executive from Petaling Jaya said.

Lim said before she got herself a water filter, she used to buy bottled water for drinking, but found that having a water filter was more feasible than buying bottled water every day.

“This way, I have managed to reduce my plastic waste as well,” she added.

Before her son paid for a water filter to be installed at their home, housewife P. Prema, 60, used to boil water in three big kettles every night for her family’s consumption the following morning.

She did this from when she was only a girl up to until four years ago, when her 26-year-old son told her that he would pay to rent a water dispenser with a built-in filter.

“He said that I don’t have to boil water anymore as the dispenser would give us hot, cold or room temperature water with just the push of a button.

“He had just started working at a supermarket at the time, but said he didn’t mind spending about RM100 per month just so I don’t have to boil water anymore,” said Prema, who lives with her family of seven.

“He said it is safer to drink water from a water filter as well. If only drinking water could be free, that would be wonderful as it would help families like us save money,” she said.