The Wet Reality
Well, everyone who were and are on this planet knew that we can't defend ourselves from the 'force' of nature. The force of the ONE Almighty Creator. Having said that, aren't we gifted with brains? Where are our common senses? Every oceanographer, marine biologist, ecologist, zoologist, botanist, fishery scientist, etc., knew that the earth was inundated and submerged more than once before. Here we are today, facing risk of progressing rise in sea water again. Should we relinquish our survival holds and concede to be in the deluge. The Noah's Ark is already ruined and kaput, remember? Are we supposed to 'just be complacent' to this Act of HIS? I believe not!. Instead, we are suppose to repent, aren't we? We seek for HIS forgiveness by conducting sound environmental mitigation in every element of our livelihood here. It's a conscience that simple. Deeds not words.
The Phenomenon
Water is one of the element. We are being blessed with marine water and fresh water. We need the liquified version of fresh water. Its solid form is still the glasier. Now, these mega freshwater reservoir is slowly melting its way into the ocean. Blaming it on those greenhouse-gases and ozone depleting layer evasive jerk called CFC won't solve the problem timely. It reciprocates between environmental scare and politics, whereby, entities orbiting around them are business opportunists. Who took samples of the ozone layer and journal it anyway?
Water is one phenomenal and magical element of life. It literally passes through any media. It permeates across the tightest RO membranes which submicronic viruses gets stuck! It's also the greatest solvent known in chemistry. For that, most natural medical treatment seeker consume plain water first thing in the morning. Its solvent and permeative effect flushes human body systems, thus, retard if not gradually cure ailments like gout and arthritis. Steadily be less dependent on those pills. Gulp in 1 litre of plain water first thing in the morning. Even before brushing our teeth! It's unbelievably amazing. That's one wet phenomena on the force of water. The legendary element of life.
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Wastewater is a Resource. Back on earth in Malaysia, the irony is getting more annoying day by day. This is a nation endeavoring its way to be developed by the year 2020. Its about 3 more years as this article gets written. Rivers are still number one source of drinking water as much as being the wastewater dumping resort. I'm not interested in sharing figures and graphs of the river qualities here. (One can acquire them from the 'Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran, Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara, Jabatan Alam Sekitar Malaysia' or other governing agencies.) I believe that there is no such thing as waste. That's it. Even those Scheduled Wastes, a legal classification of most hazardous waste, are resources! Similarly, wastewater or treated wastewater are resources. We are responsible to sustain their natural eminence!
The Talking Point in Objectives.
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We have adequate environmental technologist and engineers who were 'born' from this faculty of this and many other universities around the country. In addition, this nation already have environmental laws, water and wastewater governance agencies, public prosecutors, judicial courts, and lawyers and many other expertise. They are ready to get these done. They are ready, to follow orders. Orders come from policy executors. They follow orders from policy makers! What is transpiring?
One Lost Heritage - my Ikan Laga It's now or never, bring back those glorious days when we were able to see freshwater fishes swimming in drains. I recalled the 'Siamese Fighting Fish' or Beta Splendens and B. tomi(1) which were abundant not only in village streams and ditches but also in small towns.  Objective-1; What's Urgent? Know our rivers! Build CWTP! In accomplishing the aim as indicated as the title of this small talk is a set of six objectives. 1st objective: I'm suggesting centralized wastewater treatment system (CWTP) for each industrial area, commercial area and residences. It could be a huge industrial effluent treatment plant cum sewage treatment plant for an industrial zone.    River Ambient Quality & Simple Geomorphology Inevitably, we need to know our rivers well enough to ensure that all measures for its rehabilitation are applicable and relevant. Its ambient characteristics which must be taken into account are;
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What's the intent of the Environmental Quality Act, 1974? Kindly refer to the first paragraph of this law which says "An Act relating to the prevention, abatement, control of pollution and enhancement of the environment, and for purposes connected therewith."(4)
2.2.5.1 Calculating actual pollutant loads discharged to waters where Vd = 0
1. If sampling is conducted on a day when Vd = 0, BUT there is some discharge during the ‘sampling frequency period’, determine a time-weighted load (Lt) instead, for that sample only as follows:
Lp = Cp x Vp / 1000
Lt = Lp / n
Where:
Lp = calculated load of the pollutant (kg) over minimum sampling frequency period
Cp = concentration of the pollutant (mg/L) on the day when Vd = 0
Vp = total flow (kL) over minimum sampling frequency period (as determined by Table 4)
Lt = day’s observed load of the pollutant (kg) when Vd = 0
n = number of days in the minimum sampling frequency period (as determined by Table 4)
Vp should be calculated using methods outlined in Table 5.
2. Sum the observed daily and/or time-weighted loads.
3. Divide the total from Step 2 by the total volume (kL) for those days – use Vt = Vp / n to obtain average daily volume flow during sampling period when Vd = 0.
4. Multiply the flow-weighted concentration from Step 3 (kg/kL) by the total volume of the licence fee period (kL).
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| The Faculty of Applied Sciences of UiTM produces Environmental Technologists, Forensic Scientists and many other specializations for the world! |
These and other equations are 'snacks' for our environmental, chemical, mechanical and civil engineers. If you're a politician when reading this, then you're as lost as I am when going through such numeric and alphabetic grammar with lots of assumptions and constants. Unless, you are 'that' politician who is also a scientist, then, I'm grateful to meet you here. Thus, in such a hurry let me call upon your name and say "wake up!". This is simply because you knew the law of nature. This is where your political prowess is in need, indeed. It's now or never! The government executive teams already have their scientific resources.
Objectives 2 & 3; The Legal Standards/Limits Amendment - use these 'brains'
So, after completing objective-1, our team of scientists now know our rivers well enough. They use these data interpretations to program computer modellings and make good predictions from it. They could be guided into predicting river characteristics in extreme weather conditions and if it influences our groundwater. Next is deploy these brainy government officials into integrated teams; each assigned for specific river or a number of rivers based on objectives-2 and 3 above. Each team should consists of experts from various disciplines; extending from biologists to lawyers. Scientists such as ecologist, environmental chemists, ecotoxicologists will determine in quantified rationalization of 'how much more could this river take whilst sustaining current qualities, if not improve itself'.
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| “Automated Water Analyser Computer Supported System” (AWACSS) |
The Iskandar Region: From the Sorrow of Sungai Skudai to a Proposed Groundwater Well. What?
The Sungai Skudai's ecosystem is now facing depleting amount of life-supporting aquatic stocks. Local traditional fishermen are being deprived of their means which affects their socioeconomic pattern. Yes, they got the BR1M and they thank the country leaders. But, it doesn't last them the week's family meal. They are skillful local tribal or aborigines fishermen who can't 'google' for other job if they don't find fish. According to some of them, they had to do part-time security guards apart from other odd-jobs offered by sub-sub's sub-contractors. I think now they need to compete with Nepalese. The river mouth is shrinking or shallowing due to continual sediment transport plus reclamation activities. Its mangrove is disappearing. Meantime, while having this problem at hand, The Iskandar Development Region is looking into tapping groundwater resources.
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| The Managed Aquifer Recharge (5) |
Well, we thought it's just about water entering at so-called 'recharge zones', flows into confined and also unconfined reservoirs, and exit into adjacent water bodies like lakes, rivers and the ocean, evaporate, condense and precipitate back onto land surface and those recharge zones. The equation seems simple but we still couldn't find the exact quantified equation for its equilibrium! “The level of the water table can naturally change over time due to changes in weather cycles and precipitation patterns, stream-flow and geologic changes, and even human-induced changes, such as the increase in impervious surfaces on the landscape.” “Excessive pumping can lower the water table so much that the wells no longer supply water—they can "go dry.”(7) Data assembled so far is still a distant from comprehending this!
# What are the aquifers' media variety and their respective sensitivities?
# Are the recharge zones recharging proportionally to displacements from wells?
# How far is its flow, length of retention and diversity of transformation?
# How does it react to changing environmental ambience induced by human activities?
# What effect is derived from fractured consolidated rocks which binds them?
# What extent is the aquifers' flow being altered by urbanization?
When these and many other trivial matters are known, then, we won't end up with dry wells by mistake.
My final point to discourage aquifer exploitation is this; The aquifer is also a 'water jacket' wrapped within bedrock formation beneath the earth surface. It serves as temperature buffer zone which regulates and maintain temperatures on the earth surface at optimum range in manners conducive for life support. The 'core' or 'mantel' inside our earth is very-very hot that soil and rock glows! These red hot molten substance which exists at high thermal pressure sometimes found their way out through volcano eruptions. So, imagine if these bedrock which wraps the 'cooling water aquifer' gets ruptured via human engineered incursion such as during deep well aquifer boring, bore-piling for high-rise civil structures, etc. Wouldn't these simply aggravate cracks within and through bedrock walls? In layman's eye, imagine our car's engine which uses coolant-water fluid to ensure it operation is not overheated. The combustion chamber is operating at very high temperatures enough to cause thermal expansion on the aluminium casted engine block. The cooling effect is achieved by designing 'water jackets' around the combustion chamber which cools the circulating engine oil vis-a-vis the entire engine. My last experience of having to stop my car for overheating was a couple of years ago near Bentong, Pahang. One of its water-tubing joint was compromised and cooling fluid leaked out and raised the temperature gauge to almost red-line! Similarly, the aquifer or groundwater is our earth's water jacket as much as in the case of a car engine! Naturally, the instability of tectonic plates is already an uncertainty in standby. Would we choose to sum up the aggregate of these risks? Their cumulative force of effect is probably in exponential scales. Currently, the gradual increase in temperature of the earth surface which we called the 'Global Warming' is due to these constant release of heat from these sources. At least, and with much humbleness, this is what I hypothesize of the main causes of global warming;
#1 Aquifer's water are being transformed into vapors and released as 'geiss' which surfaces through microfractures in bedrocks. This is additional heat to the earth surface;
#2 Earth surface are covered with thermophilic construction materials such as concrete and tar. The sun's radiant heat is absorbed readily, thus, retaining heat for longer period and distort natural cooling;
#3 Rain water falls on civil structures which blocks them from infiltrating into the top soil surfaces thus prevented cooling of earth surfaces. The soil layer beneath these buildings and roads are deprived of the natural cooling and thus gets warmer;
#4 Land surfaces which are built into cities and its respective infrastructures are losing its strongest sheet of naturally engineered foundation - the bedrock. It not only had lost its integrity but enables heat to dissipate onto earth surfaces, thus, increasing its ambient temperatures;
# 6 Dislocated, altered or tampered flow of groundwater; causing areas deprived of it to become heated up and dry;
# 7 Blame it on GHGs.
Important Inference: The Earth's Water Cycle has Changed and Our House is Warming. Circa fifty years ago in the early 70s, I recalled going out of the hospital quarter house to check on my 'Ikan Laga' at a nearby monsoon drain wearing a sweatsuit to keep warm.
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| My favourite of Ikan laga |
Sincere suggestion to Urban Developers including the Iskandar Development.
TAP THE RAIN WATER! We have more roofs than arable land now, haven't we? I think you should start it now before the Highnesses of The Johore Sultanate finds more 'free time' out of football and start reading articles like this as one of His Highnesses' Royal Concern of his State Matters! Malaysian Royalties are being highly regarded for their sound education and training too. So, I've warned you. Well, UTM too has got it all - The elite Engineering Faculty. As for our Dearest Politicians, please honor me the privilege to implore: "Cut the Crab. Don't dry it."
We are not 'there' yet.
On one end, we have the law, but, not the correct discharge standards, while, on the other we want to technologize, but, not covered by the existing law. Hence, the intent of the Act is seemingly superficial or simply defeated. Therefore, in view of sustaining current qualities, if not improving them, we summarize this part of my plight for these inseparable tasks;
- Learn about our rivers;
- Amend Environmental Quality (Industrial Effluent) Regulations 2009 by establishing river-specific discharge limits in place of the Fifth Schedule, Regulation 11 (1) - (a) and (b);
- Amend Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulations 2009 by establishing river-specific discharge limits in place of the Second Schedule, Regulation 7 (1) - (a) to (f);
- Build CWTPS;
- Apply new discharge standards to each CWTP.
Objectives 4; Illegal Factories; provide alternative site, relocate, legalize and monitor.
Environmental pollution involving illegal factories is still a core factor despite decades of structured urbanization exercises. The term illegal is perceived commonly as follows;
- absence of business registration;
- absence of business license;
- absence of permits or approval from local authorities, municipalities and/or local agencies of the various federal governing bodies;
- occupying land space or buildings with inappropriate use or 'title deeds';
- one or all the above; or other reasons.
During the late 80s and early 90s especially amidst the entry into force of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) regulated requirements, various government agencies began to form Integrated Committees to manage EIA-related premises and activities. Then, it was coordinated by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU). This concept of integrated management were cascaded down to state governance and their respective districts to address business or operating licenses and permits. I believe it's still in practice. The DOE's regional or district DOE offices sends representatives as 'ex-officio' members. Pollution prevention and control is DOE's ultimate concern. Their opinion and suggestion are usually being heard well. The DOE's environmental law is a federal law which is intangible to any state governance. The state governments have their respective 'Structural Plan' which assists them in land-use management. They are well documented blue-print of development planning to ensure 'things are at the right place' and prevent any conflict to land-use. However, such meetings are point of convergence on applications from individual factories or premises. Effluent or sewage discharges are seen as their respective individual point of discharge with corresponding legal footing, imposed as they shall. The totality of impact to receiving streams or rivers aren't reviewed or explained. The 'P.A.T' which stands for Penilaian Awal Tapak (Preliminary Site Assessment), is a standard procedure for the DOE when addressing this matter. It is a physical observation of the proposed site with respect to noticeable environmental receptors around it. However, data pertaining to existing pollution load of its rivers isn't the standard reference in such surveys as it may not readily exist.
Despite substantial planning on land-use which allocated areas for industrial, commercial, residential and agricultural mainly, why entrepreneurs seek illegal sites, still? This is believed to be related to the followings;
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| Cyanide discharged! |
- capital limit in business;
- expensive IETS installation and operation;
- cost of decent factory premise is too high;
- space for many built-up factory buildings is limited;
- rental cost for ready factory building is too high;
- cheap labor of illegal immigrants is less exposed in hidden sites;
- cheaper rental land space by needy land owners are available in remote but accessible areas;
- protocol in legal administration of applications;
- attitude for short term or temporary occupancy as 'business start-up' commissioning period;
- graft or corruption conducive legislative ambience;
Obviously, factors for their surreptitious existence would remain embedded in
clandestine 'handshakes' with their respective sources. Some were apprehended when agencies acted promptly to illustrated complaints which were justified via the mass media. These are cases of higher magnitude such as the published disruption of public water supplies. Others, however, remain unseen for there's a significant dearth of supervision by related agencies. This saga of the 'dark side of the force', some of which has led to escalating pollution loads in our river resources, must come to end. Hence, in the context of pollution load in our rivers, unapprehended yet it is. And, my Ikan Laga come back not. Nonetheless, betterment efforts especially in addressing the above shortcomings must continue, relentlessly. Our brainy and high-in-integrity uprising younger officials who are raised through legitimate and sound education program must take over soon. These new generation officials must understand that their paycheques are taxpayer's resources. They must treat their duties as an obligation to taxpayer's trust in them and not as a license to bragg. Only after being nurtured with such intrinsic requisite should they (including future policy makers) be allowed to occupy those top levels of the executive governance. Further on, their elemental values shall be continually monitored and be liable to taxpayers vis-a-vis the people. They must be replaced, downgraded or expelled for not performing agreed tasks, in this context, sustaining our river water qualities and public water supplies. I'm referring to all governing entities, whether it is the politician, government, government-related-corporates or private firms related to the water issue. It's time to perform with deeds not words! Nonetheless, for those majority of brainy, trustworthy and dedicated officials - keep it up!
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| Dark Side of the Force |
... to be continued.
References
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betta
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomorphology#Contemporary_geomorphology
3) https://riverrestoration.wikispaces.com/file/view/4_streams.png/327540294/4_streams.png
4) The Environmental Quality Act, 1974, pg iv.
5) http://wqrjc.iwaponline.com/
6) https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-102-environmental-earth-science-fall-2005/
7) http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwaquifer.html
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