Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) and Groundwater Potential as Alternatives Water Resources in Malaysia: A Review

Socio-economic growth at present exerting pressure on the capacity of water supply. Water has been harvested worldwide since antiquity, thus, it is essential to manage the potential available of natural water supplies in the catchment to save water for dry periods when the supply-demand gap is comparatively high. The overall aim of this paper is to present a general overview of rainwater harvesting system and groundwater, and their potential applications for daily use. Many countries have implement the rainwater harvesting system as a sustainable approach for supplementing their public water supply. In Malaysia, the guidelines for rainwater harvesting implementations was first created in 1999 and developed by time to time to attract users. By using the system, the main findings reveals that it has overcome several of water problem issues. Groundwater is another alternative water supply that can be counted. Research has found that the availability of groundwater in few states in Malaysiawas in freshwater category based on its hardness level results. Thus, conclusions and recommendations are drawn where the gaps exist and more research needs to be focussed.