Malaysia is water-rich but that’s no reason to waste

MALAYSIA is widely perceived as being blessed with abundant water resources. Our mean annual rainfall of 2,500mm far exceeds that of many nations, and with 580 trillion litres of renewable water resources annually, Malay-sia appears to possess sufficient water to meet current demands many times over. So why worry?

Agriculture is incredibly thirsty. Globally, it consumes 72% of fresh water withdrawals, equivalent to 94 million litres extracted every second. Tragically, an estimated 60% of this water is wasted through inefficient practices. In Malaysia, agriculture alone consumes approximately 200,000 litres per second, which is akin to filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 12.5 seconds.