6.5.5 : Promoting conscious water usage on campus
Rock Aquifer Tubewell
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has solidified its position as a national leader in sustainability by transforming water resource management from a challenge of supply reliance into a showcase of conscious resource independence and cutting-edge innovation. Our commitment to "Promoting conscious water usage on campus" is realized through both revolutionary infrastructure and daily behavioural initiatives, ensuring water security for generations to come.
Institutionally, UTM has made history by becoming the first university in Malaysia to possess its own Rock Aquifer Tubewell as a self-sufficient, alternative clean water source. This critical infrastructure, which utilizes advanced membrane technology, is capable of supplying one million liters of water daily, meeting the needs of approximately 7,000 users on campus. This immense capacity not only reduces the campus’s reliance on existing external sources but also significantly saves utility costs. This achievement demonstrates the University’s success in leveraging its own expert research to create a sustainable, self-sufficient ecosystem, setting a national benchmark for water conservation and management in higher education. This long-term initiative is projected to be further expanded to generate income for the university, including potentially bottling the water source, effectively turning resource conservation into an economic asset.
In parallel, UTM actively fosters conscious water usage among its community through tangible, high-impact campaigns, most notably the "Free Water Refilling To Go" initiative. By strategically installing drinking stations across key faculties like the Faculty of Computing (FC) and the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM provides convenient access to clean, filtered water. This system actively encourages every campus user to utilize reusable water bottles, which directly helps reduce plastic waste and supports a more environmentally friendly and health conscious campus environment.
This dual approach—engineering independence through the aquifer and driving behavioral change through accessible infrastructure—reflects UTM’s holistic strategy: Sustainable engineering protects the supply, while conscious usage preserves the resource. UTM is committed to creating a more sustainable and lively campus community by integrating responsible resource consumption into its core identity.
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