MCO and Water Rationing in Melaka - a double whammy

Unless you have been in deep meditation somewhere in the middle of the desert, or have somehow managed to decouple from the world, you should all be well aware of the Covid-19 global pandemic that is (as of the time of this post) bringing the entire planet to a grinding halt. For us here in Melaka, this unfortunately overlaps with an extremely long dry spell that has left our taps running dry. Alas, two negatives do not make a positive....

Regarding the latter, Melaka historically has always had troubles with water - either too much (flooding) or too little - like we are currently experiencing. While past incidences were sometimes triggered due man-made mishaps (contamination of the water supply), the current predicament seems to be mainly due to the prolonged dry spell. It has not rained consistently for months now, save for the occasional downpour which a) may not be in the right place where the water catchment areas are located and b) may be heavy but too brief - only sufficient to make the dust stick to your car.

There are currently 3 water catchment areas in Melaka: Empangan Durian Tunggal, Empangan Jus and Empangan Asahan. There is a 4th Empangan (Malay for Dam) project at Jernih that is still far from completion, having been put off since 2018 but recently rejuvenated - which is too late to remedy the current situation. The malay proverb "sediakan payung sebelum hujan" or "prepare an umbrella before it rains" aptly describes the situation. Of course, there is another saying involving lavatories and certain bodily functions which I choose not to use, but more or less implies the same meaning....

As a result of this shortage of rain, the water levels at the dams have been decreasing rapidly. It was forecasted by the state authorities that the dams might be completely empty by April 2020! Thus, two months ago (from 29 Jan 2020), water rationing was implemented in Melaka, with water supply turned on and off on alternate week days (extended to include weekends as well in the later stages).

Now, as if life weren't challenging enough, over the past few weeks, Malaysia has seen an alarming increase of Covid-19 confirmed cases and even deaths. There is a lot of material online regarding this as well as preventive measures, so I shall not repeat here. Though a words of caution - do not blindly believe everything you read on the Internet and Social Media, as there is a lot of Fake News in circulation. In response, the Malaysian Government has issued an MCO (Movement Control Order) from 18 Mar to 31 Mar 2020. This has been done in order to impose social isolation in order to effectively break the chain of virus propagation, given the highly contagious nature of Covid-19. This essentially means everyone is to stay at home and only go out to purchase food and other important business.

My own humble opinion - 2 weeks is definitely not enough. The virus has an incubation period of 14 days (so they say) - but our detection is also not 100%. There should be additional time given for any more cases to be detected and isolated beyond the weeks, also since it will take a while before we have everyone fully adhering to social isolation guidelines. I'd say, at least until mid of April 2020 (but again, this is just my gut feeling).

So far so good through Day 3 of MCO, but believe me, being stuck at home is not as good as it sounds - at least to me. As the situation is quickly escalating on a global scale, more and more countries are forced to implement such measures, so chances are you know EXACTLY what I am talking about....

Well, for humanity's sake, I hope we can all put aside our differences and do our part to save ourselves!