Key to water security: Cut demand, not just add supply

I refer to The Big Read article “Receding water levels at Linggiu Reservoir expose S’pore’s vulnerability” (April 23).

In it, Professor Asit Biswas said: “A vast majority of Singaporeans have (no) clue what their water bill is. They know their electricity bill. You ask anyone what is their water bill, 90 per cent will have no idea ... because it’s so little.”

This is true. For example, I never really pay attention to my water consumption, as long as the bill is around what I usually pay.

Owing to the recent hot weather, however, I am concerned about the amount of water we use. Are we going to have enough?

We draw water from Malaysia, which is facing water rationing, so will we face this issue soon?

So I started looking at my bill and saw that I had used 6.8 cubic metres a month. I did not know how much one cubic metre was in litres until I googled it: 1,000L.

Using 6,800L of water was below the average of about 11,400L for a four-room flat, or 7,600 bottles of Coca-Cola! I was shocked. I bet 80 per cent of people do not know how many litres they use.

I agree that instead of only adding supply, it would be better to encourage people to reduce demand, stop wasting water and stop taking it for granted.

And the first way of doing that is to use a unit of measurement we relate to better: Litres.

I understand that if my water use is above average, I would pay attention to my usage, but people do not care about water because they do not understand how much they are using in cubic metres.

Second, incentives should be provided when our water use is below average. Otherwise, why would we want to use less? Telling us that we use less water has no value.

Third, blurbs should be added to the front page of the bill. Few people flip to the back to see how far they are from the average. Next to the bill price, it could be stated that using 1,000L less, say, helps water 300 plants.

Water is important, and countries might go to war over natural resources. Everyone should do his or her part. Even the rich, who could be thinking they can afford the bill, must know that what they consume now may leave little for their descendants.

This was posted on TODAY’s Medium page (https://medium.com/@TODAYonline)