Adequacy of rainwater harvesting system in humid tropical Malaysia

Even in humid tropical Malaysia where rainfall is abundant, water fluctuations due to a lack of rainfall do happened as in the 1998 and 2014 drought which brought unpleasant water supply disruptions in many parts of the country. Following this water crisis, the Government has expressed interest in designing houses to collect rainwater and produced a Guideline on Installing a Rainwater Collection and Utilization System. Rainwater harvesting system becomes popular in domestic usages for schools and households. Recently, this concept has spread to shopping malls, terrace houses, and community housing areas. Rainwater harvesting has been proven beneficial to the users, the environment and the governments. Rainwater harvesting is also included as one of the requirement to obtain the Green Building Index in Malaysia. This encourages installation of this system in new buildings and to combat future potable water supply shortage and to act as a buffer in times of water crisis.