Malaysia: Rivers in the country treated as dumping ground by irresponsible people

Zazali Musa The Star 12 Oct 12;

JOHOR BARU: Malaysians are treating their rivers as a dumping ground by deliberately throwing rubbish and all sort of waste into the water system.

Waste of all kinds could be found dumped in the rivers nationwide from unused automobiles to furniture to animal carcasses to toxic waste to even human bodies.

“We don’t love our rivers and human activities are the main reason that contributes to the dirty rivers,” said Malaysian Water Academy (MyWA) executive director Shaharis Saad.

He said Malaysia was among the top countries which has the most polluted rivers and it the situation prolonged, it could cause problems for clean water supply in the future

Shaharis said this in a press conference after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between MyWA and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Under the MoU, both parties would jointly undertake research activities on water-related issues such as water treatment technology and waste treatment.

He said if no action taken by the relevant authorities to improve on the quality of river in Malaysia, the country would have problems in treating river waters for human consumption.

“We foresee that Malaysia will have problems in treating raw water from our rivers 10 to 15 years down the roads as most of our rivers are polluted,’’ said Shaharis.

He said the polluted water river was not only prevalent to Malaysia but a worldwide phenomenon especially in the Third World countries where polluted rivers were common sight. Meanwhile, UTM dean, Faculty of Civil Engineering dean (Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management) Professor Dr Zulkifli Yusop said Malaysia still has a long way to go before it could see clean rivers in the country.

He singled out Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan as countries which have the best river management system in the region and managed to transformed their dirty rivers into sustainable water system.

“We have to start learning from them on how to revive our river system as clean river reflects the high degree of civic consciousness and the image of our country,’’ sadi Dr Zulkifli.