Recently one report from NGO that sludge from sedimentation pond in the Sg Muda Treatment Plant for clean water were flow to Sg Muda.The NGO claims that the sludge contain a lot of pollution substance such as zinc and can pollute the river were effect the LRA Sg Muda whom processing the raw water from the river.The amount are execcesive and over the allowable level in Akta Kualiti Alam for the effluent matters but the NGO not mention in detail all the the substance level.
What is the sludge?.According to wikipedia a sludge are the final product of settelment in the sedimentation tank.The sludge are in semisolid state like slurry and produced during flocculation process.The two type of coagulants are added to the raw water to make all the collodial particles settle at the bottom of the tank.The alum and ferric coagulants are common use in the water treatment.
The alum coagulant are less toxic compare to the ferric one.The sludge may contain heavy metal such as lead,zinc,copper and if these metal not treated and direct discharge without treatment or filtration can pollute the river.The non hazardous sludge can produce agriculture,horticulture and land base by product.
According to the First Shedule of Regulation 2,Environmental Quality(Scheduled Wastes) Regulation 2005 in the Akta Kualiti Alam Sekitar 1974 stated that sludge containing one of several metal including chormium,copper,nickel,zinc,lead,cadium,aluminium,tin,vanadium and beryllium are in the SW 204 table of the act.The sludge supposed to treat by sludge lagoon process and sludge treatment facility before discharging to the river.
According to the record,only 3 out of 6 water treatment in this scheme have a treatment facility.In Malaysia all the sludge from the water treatment plant must transport to the Bukit Nenas,Negeri Sembilan,sanitary landfill or other sanitary landfill approved by the government if no treatment facility.
But in US or Canada,the sludge from the water treatment not classified as a scheduled wastes but they have a technology like Netherland to convert the wastes to land fertiliser,backfill material in construction,one of the ingredient in cement product and as a brick for a wall.
The question is why at Sg Muda Water Treatment not stated the sludge treatment and the authority approved the plant to operate.Suppose not only the quality of process water to be checked but also the sludge treatment method have to checked before giving any approval the plant to operate.
According to the top management,the water treatment plant was operated 48 years ago and no report about pollution to the river.All the marine live still alive and not effect by the sludge but law is law and if break the law ,punishment must be imposed.If the law is deleted and taking out from the Act,then they can escaped.
In Malaysia ,any new or extension of development project including water treatment project must submit all the design drawing and calculation to the relevant authority for approval.For this kind of project ,the developer or owner of the project must submit an EIA report to the government for approval.The main point is how to treat the sludge before discharge to the river.
The law is making to make sure that our river is maintain unpollute along the time.Dont let the Sg Kim-Kim tragedy happen again and the community have a right to get a better environment as stated in the Perlembagaan Malaysia.Thank you
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