No gutter, how to collect rain water?

KUCHING: The absence of gutters on the roofs will make it difficult for environmentalists to practise the green initiative like harvesting rain water.

Secretary-general of Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda), Sim Kiang Chiok, said the green initiative was very much encouraged by the government and in the case of rain water harvesting, its clearly a green initiative for it had something to do with water conservation.

If gutters are not installed on the roof of houses, then it will be difficult to conduct rain harvesting, he told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Sim explained that the collected water could be used for daily activities such as washing, adding that the use of harvested rainwater would certainly help to save the amount of treated water used for daily activities.

Although the state Building Ordinance requires gutters to be installed in all houses, there are certain local councils which allow houses built without gutters mainly for aesthetic reasons.

For developers, it is acceptable for houses to be built without any gutter installed on the roof.

The Health Ministry recently proposed that new housing projects are prohibited from installing rainwater gutter on the roof to curb the rising number of dengue cases.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya said the move was necessary as Malaysians were still unaware that gutters which were not properly maintained could become breeding grounds of aedes mosquitoes.

The Health Ministry also proposed that Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry amend its existing regulations so that all rainwater gutters in existing houses would be removed for effective eradication of aedes mosquitoes.

Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, when contacted on Tuesday, said an in-depth study and referral to those in the construction industry should be conducted before coming up with measure to prohibit new housing projects from installing rainwater gutters on the roof.

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No gutter, how to collect rain water?