DRH2O (WATER)

The Water Conservation Programme is also known as DRH2O which is sub-programme under the existing RIVER Ranger.

The programme focused on the schools in Malaysia which aims to instill good water conservation behavior among students through 3 approaches :

  • Systematic water auditing
  • Sustainable water conservation initiative
  • Virtual water / Water footprint 

The water conservation programme is anticipated to be an outreach to a wide range of target groups such as local community, business community and other relevant target groups for the sustainability of our water resources management.

What is Virtual Water?

 

The water footprint of an individual consumer refers to the sum of direct and indirect freshwater use by the consumer. The direct water use is the water used at home. The indirect water use relates to the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the consumer. A water footprint is generally expressed in terms of the volume of water use per year. So, the indirect water mentioned here known as virtual water which the water used cannot be seen directly. The water used normally is embedded in food we take or clothes we wear.

Why Virtual Water?

The virtual water concept allows us to understand the amount of water that is needed to produce the things we use in everyday life. With growing human populations followed by increasing demands of water, water overuse is at the expense of one of our most essential natural resource and also the environment. The significance of the concept have increased in recent years due to the lack of good water resource management, leading to water scarcity in multiple countries.

With the increased pressure of global and regional water scarcity, the concept of virtual water can help the balance of global water in a sustainable and cost effective way and may urge policy-makers to re-think water scarcity as a challenge beyond regional level in addition to consider the issue of water scarcity and food security within broader political, environmental, social and economic forces.

The objectives of virtual water is: