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GEORGE TOWN: Water comes out of the tap clean most of the time, but is it safe enough to drink?
For Americans traveling to Malaysia, this does not appear to be the case.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists Malaysia as one of 187 countries where tap water is unsafe to drink without boiling or disinfecting it first.
The list includes impoverished and war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Rwanda, and Sudan.
“In most developing countries, tap water should probably not be drunk, even in cities. This includes swallowing water when showering or brushing your teeth.
“In some areas, it may be advisable to brush your teeth with bottled water,” states the CDC in its travel advisory.
The agency lists 57 other countries where the water is classified as safe to drink from the tap.
These include most European countries, North America, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
While Americans are advised not to drink from the tap in Malaysia, what about Malaysians?
Water expert Dr. Chan Ngai Weng said it depends on how far you live from the water treatment plant.
“All the water treatment plants in the country will make the water drinkable, but the journey of the water from the plant to the tap is another story,” said Professor Chan, president of the local NGO Water Watch Penang.
Chooi Foo Cheong showing the new (right) and badly rusted water tank supports in an apartment block in George Town.
He said that while no one should doubt Malaysia’s water treatment capacity, the pipeline distance between consumers and treatment plants is another matter.
“The further you are from the treatment plant, the greater the risk of contamination,” he said.
The pipelines, some of them decades old, can pass through plantations, industrial estates and, in Penang’s case, cross the sea from the mainland to the island.
Professor Chan said that in addition to bacterial contamination, industrial and agricultural contaminants could also enter the pipeline network.
He explained that when there is earthwork and a backhoe breaks the water network by accident, the supply must be temporarily shut off for the pipes to be fixed and when the pipes are open, bacteria, heavy metals, rust and chemicals can contaminate the pipeline. depending on the location.
However, when it comes to tourists, Professor Chan said that those staying in licensed hotels should not worry because such establishments must, by law, have adequate water filters.
“You can brush your teeth from the tap in a hotel. No problem. But I would not recommend that a tourist turn on the tap on the road and drink from it, ”he said.
There is also the issue of the water tanks on the roofs of the apartments.
“Department management committees or corporations are supposed to clean tanks regularly, but the fact is they don’t do it because it’s expensive.
“That is why almost all apartment dwellers have their own water filters,” said Professor Chan.
A former apartment management committee chair, Kenneth Hor, said there was no statute requiring management committees to clean water tanks and that in practice, management committees would not clean them unless there were complaints from the residents.
“It will cost thousands of ringgit and we may have to make unit owners pay more to pay the bill. The owners of the units will complain if we make them pay more, ”he said.
“Yes, there is usually a layer of sediment at the bottom of the tanks, but the outlet pipes are a few feet from the bottom so the sediment doesn’t escape.
“It is much safer to install water filters at home. I have two: a sediment filter outside and a finer filter in the kitchen, ”added Hor.
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