W3: "A Day Without Water"
A Day Without Water
11 July 2025, Friday
Dear Diary,
Today was an exhausting day.
It was around 6 a.m. when I woke up from a short rest during my night shift at the hospital. I was still sleepy and going to grab a cup of coffee before checking on patients. Suddenly, my colleague told me that our town had lost access to clean water. At first, I thought it was a joke. Then, I realised it was not. We had no clean water to wash our hands, no water to clean wounds and equipment, no way to flush the toilets. We relied on hand sanitizers and tried to boil all the bottled water we had left to clean the equipment. But it was not enough. A patient with a wound needed cleaning, and all we could do was to wipe it with antiseptic. I felt so helpless. In a hospital, hygiene is everything.
Just after lunch, I got a text from my younger sister. She told me that their school let them go home early because they have no water and the toilet cannot be flushed. She said the toilets smelled so bad that no one wants to go near them. That was when I realised it was not just the hospital that was struggling. She also mentioned the canteen had to close as they could not cook or wash anything, so no food was served. Some students did not bring anything from home and had to wait hungry.
That evening, when I finally got home after my shift, all I wanted was a warm meal and a hot shower. I already knew there would be no water at home either. I could not cook, shower or even wash my hands properly after a long day. My body feel sweaty and sticky. So I decided to walk to the nearest supermarket and buy a bottle of mineral water to make instant noodles and to wash my hands and face. But when I got there, the shelves were empty. All the bottled water was sold out. Other people had come earlier to stocked up. I started panicking, so I quickly called a few friends to ask if they had any extra bottled water at home. Luckily, one of them said yes and told me I could come over to take some.
On the way to my friend’s house, I saw a few neighbours gathering outside the community hall. They were discussing ways to collect rainwater if this situation continued. One aunty suggested using pails to catch rain from the roof. Another uncle said he would share the extra water from his water tank if anyone needs it. Even though everyone looked tired and worried, they were still helping each other.
That night before I went to sleep, I could not help but wonder. If someone like me in the city had to struggle so much just for one day, how were farmers doing? For farmers, water is not just for drinking or showering. They rely on it every single day to keep their crops alive and their animals healthy. Plants will wither, soil will dries out and farm animals will go thirsty without water. That means no harvest, no food to sell and no income to support their families. It made me realise that even a short water disruption can cause real difficulties for farmers.
After this incident, I noticed I used to take clean water for granted. Just one day without water, everything became so hard. I also started thinking about people in other parts of the world who live like this every day, without easy access to clean water. Around 2.2 billion people in the world still don’t have clean and safe drinking water, while 4.2 billions do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack of basic handwashing facilities (“1 In 3 People Globally Do Not Have Access to Safe Drinking Water – UNICEF, WHO,” 2019). I later read another article in Malaysia. 53% of Orang Asli communities cannot access clean drinking water (Chew, 2023). Now, I know how lucky I am to have clean water and I hope I will remember this feeling and be more careful with how I use it in the future.
References
Chew, L. (2023, May 11). GPF Malaysia celebrates six years of clean water and dignity for rural communities. Global Peace Foundation. https://globalpeace.org/gpf-malaysia-celebrates-six-years-of-clean-water-and-dignity-for-rural-communities/
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