Malaysia wants to splash out on tech sector, but heavy water demand hard to quench

In the past three years, Malaysia has secured billions of dollars worth of new semiconductor and data centre investments. According to some analysts, Malaysia is projected to become a major player in the global data centre space by the end of the decade.

But tech facilities like semiconductor factories and data centres need voluminous levels of treated water in particular to maintain their stringent production standards and efficient operations.

“We need new streams, new taps,” said Charles Santiago, head of the National Water Services Commission, referring to new sources of water.

“We can’t depend on the old taps because they are uncertain right now … you don’t know if there is going to be too much or too little rain, and droughts have become longer.”

Southeast Asia has experienced a long El Niño bout recently, which experts said was likely due to climate change. The weather phenomenon has caused temperatures to hit record levels as the region grappled with prolonged droughts and forest fires.

Dam and river levels in some parts of Malaysia fell to alarming levels in the first few months of this year, forcing authorities to impose water rationing in several areas and launch cloud seeding operations in a bid to trigger rain and replenish its water supply.

Malaysia may soon face a different set of challenges with a “70 per cent chance” of a wet La Niña season over the next few months, which could cause more rain and trigger severe floods that disrupt the supply of treated water, said Sheeba Chenoli, a meteorologist and climate expert with the University of Malaya.

The increased rainfall could overwhelm water management systems by causing erosion and sedimentation that clog waterways, disrupt river flow and reduce the capacity of