WATER SUPPLY RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN SARAWAK AND OTHER COUNTRIES

Abstract

The rapid urbanization faced by Sarawak has raised the concern on whether the current water supply isadequate to cater for the increasing demands in future. This study focuses on identifying the potential options of watersupply resources and management practices for Sarawak in future. The water supply resources and management practicesfrom other countries are reviewed as to provide guidance for Sarawak in improving their water supply resources andmanagement practices. The desk study is performed by collecting data and information from existing resources such asinternet, government agencies, journal papers, and published reports. In this study, five types of water resources wereconsidered to be used by studied countries including surface water, groundwater, desalinated water, rainwater and reclaimedwater. The usage of surface water is recorded as the highest among all resources for both in Sarawak and other countries. Interms of water storage system, the difference between Sarawak and other countries are not significant as they adoptedalmost the similar systems such as reservoir and well. Ideally, there are three proposed potential options regarding watersupply resources for Sarawak in future namely rainwater harvesting, desalinated water and reclaimed water. Nonetheless,most of the management practices in other countries had already been practiced by Sarawak itself but may differ in terms oftechnologies and method of applications. Thus, effective water resources management must be supported by understandingof the availability of the resource itself in order to address the probable challenges in future.