Penang’s water conundrum
State spends rm100mil subsidising highest usage per capita at lowest tariff in country
MY LAST water bill was RM7.48, but that is not the monthly amount. Penang homes get billed for water once every two months.
A senior management member of Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) told me years ago that sending the meter man out to tally the measly sum monthly was too expensive, so the meter man visits each home once every two months.
This means my recent average monthly water cost is really a very low RM3.74; even a cup of teh tarik and two pieces of roti canai cost more than that.
My buddy in Shah Alam told me his water bill was about RM10 a month, which he found fair enough for his household of five people including his wife and three adult children.
A friend in Kuala Lumpur said his last monthly water bill was about RM20 for him, his wife, two teenage sons and a maid.
I was surprised when a large family of eight in Melaka told me their water bill was RM170 to RM200 a month.
I believe my water bill is low compared to theirs because in Penang, the first 20,000 litres we use every month costs us 22sen per 1,000 litres. In Melaka, those 1,000 litres cost 60sen, 272% more.
The National Water Services Commission’s (SPAN) website www.span.gov.my lists the surcharges in other states aside from Penang.
I also checked with my Penang friends. One buddy’s last twomonth bill was RM14.80 (RM7.40 a month); his household consists of him, his wife, mother and two children. They cook to keep the food bill down.
Another buddy with a wife and two young sons hardly cook and enjoy a two-month bill of RM5.94 (RM2.97 a month).
He and his wife both work. His sons are in daycare till evenings.
He told me he would just plonk RM100 into his PBAPP account and never bother with it until the PBAPP app on his phone beeps to remind him to top up.
This is what I call the Penang water enigma. We are a small state with sparse raw water resources. Yet we have the cheapest water in the country and we record the highest (per capita) water consumption in the country.
Something is not right here. For years, the Penang government has pleaded with residents to use less water, but the numbers show that Penangites simply don’t care.
Before you blame businesses and factories, the 2022 figures show that 61.6% of our treated water flowed out of the taps of domestic users.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, who is also PBAPP chairman, said last May that Penangites used 307 litres/capita/ day (LCD), compared with the national average of 244 LCD in 2020 and Singapore’s 158 LCD in 2021.
“Per capita” means the average per person.
Last month, Chow announced that the state would submit a review of the domestic water tariffs to SPAN, something which is supposed to be done every three years but which Penang has avoided doing since 2015.
He also shared that the state government was spending about Rm100mil a year subsidising water treatment.
Think about it. That Rm100mil a year could have funded all kinds of infrastructure enhancements and welfare programmes for the underprivileged.
Can Penang households perhaps pay a little more for their water (and use a little less) so that some of that Rm100mil can be used for the betterment of the state?
But it might not be fair to call on private citizens to be altruistic.
Many Penangites I spoke to were not happy when told to expect a rise in water tariffs.
The prices of everything were increasing, they said, and to see a spike in their water tariff would just add to their gloom.
Even when I showed them how Penang’s water was “too cheap” compared with the rates in other states, they were not moved. As ordinary citizens, they didn’t want to shoulder more worries.
SPAN recently declared that should the domestic water tariffs be increased, the average user can expect their bill to go up by maybe RM3 a month.
Starting tomorrow, the majority of Penangites have to tolerate up to four days of dry taps while the giant valves of the largest water treatment plant in north Seberang Prai are being replaced.
I know a family of five living in a small apartment in Mount Erskine who bought three large containers to store water.
After the tap water returns, where are they going to keep those large containers? Their small apartment is packed as it is and those containers cost almost RM50 each.
Penang’s water may be the cheapest in the country, but it’s been quite a hassle to get it.