The time was 5:45pm but it was almost dark outside the Abu Ibrahim restaurant,located at 200 Pradipat Road,Bangkok.Three of us Malaysians were sitting there waiting to break our fast. We were pleasantly suprised when were served 'cendol' like back home in Kuala Lumpur. To cut the long story short, we had  a sumptous dinner and it cost us B550( about RM 50) for three persons as compared to hotel dinner that would have cost  RM 50 per person.

Six Malaysians were invited and fully sponsored by UNDP/MRC/GWP to attend the Regional Dialogue on Global Water Partnership.I represented the Malaysian Water Association.The meeting was stimulating and eye opener for me;for it is the first time I attended a regional forum of issues related to Intergarted Water Resources Management.Water is getting scarcer everyday and yet this precious commodity is being misused and mismanaged in every country in the world.At the present rate of water quantity and quality deteriorate, the human beings will eventually faced a catastrophy in the next decade. That is why the UNDP is playing its global role to highlight the issue before it is too late...and locally the people are playing politics with it.As far as Malaysia is concerned, we have enough laws but we must admit that we have failed to enforce these laws.It is sad but it is true.May be, it would take a bigger crisis ,then only everybody will realise the importance of complying with the laws.

<The recent building collapse at Taman Hillview that killed 8 persons demonstrated that we have NOT learnt any lessons from the Highland Tower collapse nine years ago that kiiled 48 people.>

The key word here is "dialogue" among the water stakeholders.When it comes to water, everyone rich or poor is a stakeholder. Not only human beings are stakeholders, the animals and the trees are also stakeholders. We need water for our domestic and industrial demands, we need water to grow food and the environment also need water to main the balanced eco-system.

Malaysia is endowed with 3m of rainfall a year and our water demand is less than 2% of it, and yet we are facing water problems off and on. Those in KL will remember the water crisis in 1998! Another big project is being planned to tranfer water from Pahang to Klang Valley at the cost of RM 4 billion! What had gone wrong with our water resources planning? As far as I know, after the water crisis, a National body called National Water Resouces Council was formed but to the best of my knowledge, it is just like a dormant company-sitting there for another crisis to take place.The water transfer project is one year behind schedule due to lack of fund.The Japanese promised to loan money but until to-day, it is a promise.

Thailand,Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia have carried out their national water dialogues. Malaysia has yet to do it- most like next year. This month, my friends in water fraternity is organising capacity building to facilate understanding of sustainable water resources mamagement. Ironically, Malaysia and Singapore are having their special "dialogue" of different kind. Personally, I had enough reading about it in the papers.

Dialogue is a mechanism worth trying as a tool to explore ways where all interested parties or stakeholders talk and resolve their problems or issues. However, it will only work if all parties are willing to resolve the issues.Not only the will,we also need sincerity, commitment and compromise.Failing which,these are the potential roots to bigger conflicts.I hope no wars will break out over water issues between nations.

We read about conflicts ,big and small everyday in the newspapers.It involves every strata of the human community -from nations to individuals.You will be asking yourself why don't they sit down and have a dialogue to resolve their issues? And yet, at personal level, we sometimes failed to have our own family dialogues with our spouse and children.What has happened to all of us??Do you know the answer? If you have ,please send me an email. Thank you.