Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Water Supply Level of Quality Services in Kelantan

Challenges of accessing and distributing clean water requires significant concern. Ensuring equal access to water services and maintaining consistent water quality standards for all is a collective obligation for state water governance. Identifying key aspect related to quality services in water supply is important whereby active involvement and participation of users in water management and governance serve as crucial indicators for effective performance and policy development. Unfortunately, public perspectives on water governance often go unnoticed and undervalued. Public water supply provision in Kelantan state in east of Malaysia is entrusted to Air Kelantan Sdn. Bhd. (AKSB). However, users water supply is deemed as receiving inadequate attention with no assessment nor solutions given despite the issue being raised repeatedly. Hence, it is imperative to identify the key factors associated with the quality of service of water supply that should also be efficiently and effectively aligned with users’ needs. This study focuses specifically on the water supply of households in Kelantan, in the districts of Machang and Kota Bharu and aims to investigate the opinions of residents’ satisfaction with the water provision services. This study employed a quantitative approach by using a questionnaire survey. The WASERVQUAL model was used to evaluate water service quality based on five dimensions namely Reliability, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. Findings revealed the overall gap on the dimension of service quality indicated dissatisfaction from recipients. Negative gaps of mean scores were revealed across all five dimensions. Nevertheless, t-test value of hypothesis testing showed only the Reliability and Assurance dimensions showed negative value of satisfaction indicating that the current service performance did not achieve the expected standards, and the perception was consistent across the two districts studied. This study therefore suggests the significance of having reliable and assured water service quality for improved water governance and future utilization.