{"id":1090,"date":"2007-02-10T00:35:09","date_gmt":"2007-02-09T16:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2009-10-01T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T01:25:37","slug":"1086-of-water-shortage-ineffective-threat-and-effective-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=1090","title":{"rendered":"[1086] Of water shortage, ineffective threat and effective policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I cannot help but let go a huge sigh when I read a headline entitled “Conserve or face rationing, public told<\/a><\/em>” in The Star on February 8:<\/p>\n

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians have been told to start conserving water now or brace themselves for water rationing if the expected hot and dry weather hits the country next month.<\/p>\n

Selangor water concessionaire Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) has sounded out to the state government that rationing was among the steps that would have to be taken if the situation takes a turn for the worse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right. Like people are going to listen; I doubt such warning could encourage people to conserve.<\/p>\n

When I heard rationing as a possible solution, I rolled my eyes.<\/p>\n

I have offered a better plan to survive water shortage, be it caused by El Ni\u00c3\u00b1o<\/a> or simple drought, long ago \u2014 prices should reflect water scarcity<\/a> and be allowed to float according to water quantity. In short, with the anticipated water shortage, price must go up throughout the duration of the shortage. In a free market with no state intervention, price would have gone up by now, signally the possibility of shortage.<\/p>\n

People will only conserve if something hits them in the head. A mere warning does not cut it but a price increase will do the trick.<\/p>\n

I do not know about you but I prefer to pay more rather than not have water at all. Further, rationing is such a drag. Besides, for goodness’ sake, we are living in the 21st century and we are not in a war or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I cannot help but let go a huge sigh when I read a headline entitled “Conserve or face rationing, public told” in The Star on February 8: PETALING JAYA: Malaysians have been told to start conserving water now or brace themselves for water rationing if the expected hot and dry weather hits the country next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[727,431],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-environment","tag-shortage","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5343,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/5343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}