Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh said the Rain Rave Water Music Festival, scheduled to run from April 30 to May 2, should have been shelved for similar reasons.

Akmal said the wing accepted the government’s decision to scrap the open houses even though such events would also have benefited the public and vendors.

“But why wasn’t this water festival cancelled as well?” he said in a Facebook post, asking if the event was of greater significance than an open house.

“Do the government’s austerity measures not apply to the water festival? Does this water festival not waste water?” he added.

Noting the government’s cloud seeding efforts to increase water capacity, he said he was puzzled that it could, at the same time, organise an event that would waste water.

He challenged the religious affairs minister and federal territories mufti to state their positions on the event.

He also urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to cancel the event, which he described as “foolish”, and demanded the removal of tourism, arts and culture minister Tiong King Sing.

Tiong defended the water festival last week, saying similar events such as the Songkran water festival in Thailand had attracted tourists to the country, including Malaysians, and generated huge returns.

Tiong also said that participation was voluntary and denied claims that participants of the water music festival had been told to come in swimsuits or revealing clothes.