Critical Environment Problem In Malaysia - Water Pollution

Malaysia, one of the 'Asian tiger' economies, has enjoyed remarkable growth over the last few decades, with industrialization, agriculture and tourism. But today, Malaysia faces problems of deforestation, pollution of inland and marine waters, soil and coastal erosion, overfishing and coral reef destruction, along with air pollution, water pollution and the problem of waste disposal. Among these problems, water pollution is the most critical.

Causes of the Water Pollution:

Basically, water pollution in Malaysia originates from point sources and non-point sources. The point sources pollution includes sewage treatment plants, manufacturing and agro-based industries and animal farms. Non-point sources are mainly diffused ones such as agricultural activities and surface runoffs. According to Malaysia Environment Quality Report 2004, the Department of Environment has recorded 17,991 water pollution point sources in 2004 comprising mainly sewage treatment plants (54%), manufacturing industries (38%), animal farms (5%) and agro-based industries (3%). The distribution of the water pollution sources is shown in Figure 1 below.

Why is the Water Pollution More Important than Others?

Firstly, water pollution will cause the dangers in human health. Human infectious diseases are among the most serious effects of water pollution. Waterborne diseases occur when parasites or other disease-causing microorganisms are transmitted via contaminated water, particularly water contaminated by pathogens originating from excreta. These include typhoid, intestinal parasites, and most of the enteric and diarrheal diseases caused by bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Among the most serious parasitic diseases are amoebiasis, giardiasis, ascariasis, and hookworm. Malaysia is not immuned to the problem of infectious waterborne diseases. Thus the transmission of disease agents such as bacteria and cysts via contaminated but poorly treated municipal water is more common than it should be. Every year, a lot of people are sickened by contaminated water. This is only partly due to drinking water—contamination of recreational water (such as beach water) is also a problem.

Secondly, water pollution will cause the water
shortage and affect the quality of the supplied water. Once the water is polluted, people will face the water shortage problem. When the water is polluted, it will affect the water supply. Reservoir collects the water from rivers, once the river is polluted, the water quality in reservoir will be low. For example, Eutrophication occurs when lake water is artificially supplemented with nutrients, which causes abnormal plant growth. Eutrophication can produce problems such as bad tastes and odors as well as green scum algae. And also the growth of rooted plants increases, which decreases the amount of oxygen in the deepest waters of the lake. A common chemical change is the precipitation of calcium carbonate in hard waters. Thus, Eutrophication makes some lakes void of life. Hence, this will affect the quality of water or government need to find other water sources which is a time consuming project.

Thirdly, water pollution will affect the aquatic ecosystems. Many types of chemicals have mixed into our waterways. These types of chemical contamination are considered "point sources" of water pollution. Non-point-source chemical pollution also occurs via pesticide run-off from farm fields and homeowners' lawns, as well as run-off of automotive fluids and other chemicals from roads, parking lots, driveways, and other surfaces. Severe chemical spills and leaks into surfaces waters usually have an immediate effect on aquatic life (fish kills, etc.). Thus, there will be more and more affects on aquatic life, and as a result, human are the one that suffered.

In conclusion, water is a basic need of human. Without water, human are not able to survive. Thus, to prevent more damages on our water sources, there is a need to focus on this water pollution problems and find out the solution.

(My Blog buddy is Wee)

NEWater

As we discuss in class last time, i think NEWater is quite general in Singapore now. But a lot of people still worry about the quality of the NEWater. Thus, i shared a weblink about the information of the NEWater in Singapore which is publish in PUB website here.

http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater_files/index.html

Hope the information may help everyone in understanding about the NEWater and what goverment strategy to solve the Singapore water issue.

Enjoy reading.

Question on Environmental Problems

How does the increase in population in Malaysia affect the physical environment?

The Meaning of My Life

Is human life just a dream? Or are we submerged by our feelings, by our loves and hates, by our ideas of good, bad, beautiful or awful? There are billions of people in this planet. Everyone has their own life, whether the life is meaningful or not, is not for us to decide. In my opinion, the meaning of life is joy and feelings of harmony connected to happiness. Without the happiness, life loses meaning.

I was born in a small village in Malaysia. My father was a rubber tapper.From the age of 7, I started to help my father in the rubber plantation. Besides study, helping my parent in the plantation was the only leisure activity I had. From young, I have learned to save, because it was my father “hard earned” money. I understand that the only way to achieve a better life is by gaining a knowledge. Thus, since young, my only dream was graduate from university.

After finished my primary education, I continued my secondary education at Malacca. From there, I have learned to be independent. Thanks to my childhood experience, from the schoolwork to the housework, I was able to manage everything. I continued my A-Level studies at Kuala Lumpur, and my only dream was further my studies overseas. But I was wrong, and I realized that my dream becomes a burden to my father. I was regret that causing my parent felt awkward. But I do not give up my dream. Thus I joined Singapore Polytechnic.

After graduate from polytechnic, I started to work and saved my university’s education fee. Now as an undergraduate student, I feel grateful to my parent which created such a challenge environment for me. Without those experience, I won’t be able to understand what my life is, I won’t be able to value what I have and the people around me. I have learned not to give up my dream. No matter what problem is it, I choose to face it and solve it. I have learned to create my own life, and this life will always be meaningful and colorful to me whenever I wake up in the morning.

Happiness or unhappiness is depends on our own decision. I always choose to be happy and bring my happiness to the people around me. Having someone you love and who love you is a great happiness. I think the happiness from the heart is the most meaningful. Never giving up my dream, no matter how tough is my life and what will happen in future. Work for my dream and I will never regret.

Sometimes, the life is uncertain. Only your own heart, your own experiences teach you to make a decision for our life. Do not afraid about your future, start working what you dream now and there is your future.