KUALA LUMPUR: A significant milestone in providing clean water access to rural communities has been reached with the construction of 22 clean water tanks since 2017 under the Etiqa Clean Water Project. This initiative has positively impacted over 20,000 villagers across several Malaysian states.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Etiqa Family Takaful Berhad’s chief executive officer, Zafri Ab Halim, emphasized that this community project forms a crucial part of Etiqa’s corporate social responsibility efforts. Collaborating with Islamic Aid Malaysia, the program aims to address the difficulties faced by local residents in securing a reliable supply of clean water throughout the year.

The states benefiting from this initiative include Kelantan, Sabah, Kedah, Selangor, Perak, Sarawak, and Pahang. “We believe that access to clean water is a basic right that every individual should enjoy. This is a crucial step to ensure the basic needs of rural residents are met, enabling them to lead better and more comfortable lives,” Zafri stated during the launch of the Etiqa Clean Water Project in Kampung Bukit Budu.

Kampung Bukit Budu residents have historically depended on hill water sources, utilizing a gravity-fed system constructed collectively over the past three decades. However, this system has struggled to accommodate the growing needs of the community and has suffered frequent pipe damage due to outdated infrastructure.

The project has upgraded the old water catchment on a nearby hill to enhance water availability and pressure. In addition to this, new pipes have replaced the deteriorating ones to efficiently channel treated water to village homes. The initiative employs a gravity system to transport water from the catchment area through approximately three kilometers of polypipes to a pump house, where it undergoes filtration and treatment using a high-scale synthetic membrane filtration system before being stored in a 5,000-gallon tank.