river pollution

DID THE HUMAN BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RIVER POLLUTION IN MALAYSIA?

INTRODUCTION

In Malaysia, rivers are the main sources of the water supplies to the human. Water quality is focused to the chemical, biology and the physical of the water body. In fact, rivers are biologically productive and diverse environment in the natural form. Rivers have the most significant role in assimilating the industrial and agriculture waste, supply the water for the inland area such for irrigation, drinking and industrial purpose. Unfortunately nowadays, most of the rivers in Malaysia is polluted and lead to the threat to the human, animals and plants.

STATUS OF THE WATER QUALITY IN MALAYSIA

The Water Quality Index (WQI) is used by the Department of Environment (DOE) to assess the level of the water quality. The WQI is the basis assessment regarding the water pollution. In 2006, total 1,064 water quality test is done within 146 different river basins. As the result, 619 (58%) were clean from the pollutant, 359 (34%) moderately polluted and the rest 86 (8%) were polluted. The river that located at the upstream were resulted clean, while the river located at the downstream were resulted polluted. As the conclusion, the river at the downstream is not suitable for the human consumption as it harmful.

FACTORS OF RIVER POLLUTION

The water pollution is believed come from the industrial and domestic sewage, waste from the livestock farm, agro-based and manufacturing industries, road and housing construcrion, logging and deforestration, waste product from the mining activities and the heavy metal from the factories.

Urbanisation is one of the factors that lead to the water pollution. Urbanisation mainly will produce the pollutant in the form of r...

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... butterflies and birds. Additionally, the farmer should use the soil conditioner and natural fertilizers which do not have chemical substances such as peat and compost in order to maintain the soil moisture and stimulate the growth of the plant. The compost bin is widely used in agriculture as it is low cost, maintain the soil moisture and do not need the chemical fertilizer.

The phenomenon of soil erosion will create the sediment that can wash into the water, which will cause the problems to the aquatic life. In order to reduce the sediment during building new structure or landscaping, the developers should use the tarp to cover the mound of dirt. As the result, the rain and wind do not carry the sediment into the flowing water. The developers also should not alter the stormwater pond as it can impede the ability of the pond to hold the stormwater runoff.