Water sustainability in campus: A framework in optimizing social cost

Abstract

This paper aims to share a framework developed by Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in an effort to build a community that cares for the sustainability of the campus, in particular, the water management. Generally, UUM has about 4 thousand staff and 32, 279 students in the campus. In contrast to other universities, about 95% of UUM students live at the in-campus accommodations provided by the University. Hence, clean water is one of the basic necessities needed by the UUM community. Despite of this necessity, the distribution of water in the campus recorded some loss due to leakage. The implication to this problem is not only affecting the cost of distributing the water to users, but also the total cost to citizens in the campus that consume the water. In addition, UUM is also traced by several river trunks which has become iconic attractions of the campus. However, these rivers are exposed to the risk of pollutions caused by human negligence. Therefore, it is time for the university to take serious actions to prevent more damages done to the rivers in order to ensure the continuity of social life in the campus. On the basis of this concern, UUM has taken steps to develop a framework that seeks to optimize social costs for water sustainability in the future.