Water price hike and new social behaviour

The govt is taking proactive actions to warn the hawkers not to raise prices to benefit from profiteering. And very likely, in my dreams, that the hawkers would follow this call religiously. Some hawkers even said they would not pass down the hike to the consumers and would absorb the increase in cost. This is something you can only hear in heaven when everyone is so saintly and angel like.

Let’s believe that the hawkers and food sellers would not pass the burden to their customers and everything will be as before. Look at the other areas where this price hike would hit the people. Maids in the condominium would likely be asked to bath in the common bathrooms beside the swimming pools or gymnasium. All public facilities like toilets would be doubly well patronized for sure. I have seen office workers brushing their teeth in the office toilets. Soon more will follow suit and they may even bath in the office bathrooms if available.

In the case of public toilets, would they start charging for usage? Oh, toilet facilities in shopping centres would also be a hot favourite place, in Changi Airport too.

Would employers start to restrict the number of times a worker can bathe, how long they can bathe because of this water hike?

Then there are the wet markets, hawker centres, foodcourts that required daily wash up. Would the frequency and duration be shortened? Water is not cheap now and these operators must be made to feel the heat of higher water prices. And when the heat is on, would they stinge on washing up their stalls and the hawker centres and food courts? Would they stop washing their food during preparation, would they cut down on water when washing the crockery and eating utensils? Would the hygiene of food preparation be compromised, would the eating places be less washed and deteriorated into waste land?

Would buses and trains be more smelly when people cut down on personal hygiene, bathe less, use less water, don’t wash their clothings that often? Water festivals would be banned I supposed which would not be good for integrating the foreigners here, not respecting their festivals.

One good point is that human noses are very adaptable and soon everyone would be used to the smell and get on with their lives with the new normal.

The greetings of 'jiat pah buay' would be changed to 'chang chui buay'.