Snippet 7 : River of life

The Klang riverfront is perhaps Greater KL/KV's most under-utilised natural asset. The river has low water quality and listed among polluted river in Malaysia. There is several attempt was done to improve the condition of the river but not produce satisfactory result.

As such, under the Economic  Transformation  Programme  (ETP), The River of Life (RoL) is initiated aims  to  transform  the  Klang River  into  a  vibrant  and  liveable  waterfront  with  high  economic  value.  This transformation is divided into three components: river cleaning, river masterplanning and beautification and river development.

  

The objective of the River Cleaning is to clean and improve the water quality of 110km along the Klang and Gombak River from its current Class III – Class V water quality (not suitable for body-contact) to Class IIb (suitable for body-contact recreational usage) by year 2020.  It not an easy job as it involve big water catchment with various activities and on top of that the area is continuously in develop trend.

  

Lead by Department of Irrigation and Drainage, it involved other government agency and municipal to execute what we call total make over to ensure it can be materialized.

1. Sewerage Department - implement Regional Central Sewage treatment plant

2. Department of Irrigation and Drainage - River beautification

3. Department of environment - Enforcement on the pollutant discharge into the river

4. Local authority - Control loophole of DOE (restaurant and other commercial)

5. Solid waste authority - Improve collection rate/reach at the area.

Once the quality is successfully improve, the next step is to proceed with river beautification program. The objective of the River Beautification is to Masterplan and Beautify 10.7 km of Klang and Gombak river to increase the economic viability of the area. The River Beautification component is led by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, through the collaborations of 13 departments and agencies within and beyond Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur.  

The final will be about how to use the feature as people/tourist attraction.

for more information refer to http://app.kwpkb.gov.my/greaterklkv/entrypoint-project-river/

  

Credit to kinibizz

The attraction place illustrated in the future

Other image illustrated by the designer

Snippet 6 : Fauna survey

Trace of bear claw

Fauna survey is one main component that nees to be carried out in EIA study. Fauna study include wildlife survey, avifauna, small mammal, reptiles, and  etc. This picture taken throughout the study we are doing.

Snippet 5 : Bush Fire

In malaysia, one of the common thing when drought season is open burning. Open burning prohibited under section 29A of Environmental Quality Act 1974. If found guilty, maximum penalty of RM500,000 or 5 year or both. Only certain activities is permited under Environmental Quality (Declared Activities)(Open Burning) 2003. During dry spell, peat swamp area is really prompt to bush fire. Department of environment is responsible to ensure  no
open burning. Base on hot spot data. The affected area are in klang, sepang, pekan, rompin. Fire fighter need to standby during this period.

Erosion and sediment control plan

We might often heard an earthwork plan and drainage plan. Escp is another plan that important before construction work is permitted by local authority called developmenr order. Department of drainage and irigation is responsible to review the document.

The escp can only prepared by profesional engineer that has certified CPESC by Envirocert. In malaysia, it controlled by Malaysia stormwater organization (MSO).

Department of environment make escp as requirement in every EIA approval condition shows how critical and serious this matter.

Study has shown that quality of river has deteriorate due to development new area for agriculture, lodging and urbanization. Total suspended solid is the main issue and sudden increase is observed after heavy rain. Tss is due to exposed area from uncontrol clearing work.

Implement of escp really helpfull in reducing the impact of sedimentation in river. Our country which have constant rain with an average of 3000mm per year really should tackle this issue properly.

General practice is to built big sediment pond, but the truth is. It totally wrong. I will explain why next time. Through experiment and observation, the best way is to have less disturbance to our nature, use natural way called aa bioengineering, and design base on natural condition. If not, we might face natural disaster, or higher maintenance cost

Environmental Consultant

In pursuit career as environmental consultant. There are a lot of thing u must master. As environmental thing itself cover a broad field such as water, air, noise, flora and fauna, waste management, health. So u need know where ur strength n try to develop it. And all this of course depend on your company that u choose.

The environmental job is depend on our legal which is fall under environmental quality act 1974. With this act all project that fall in environmental quality (precribed activity)(Environmental Impact Assessment) order 1987 need to do environmental impact assessment (EIA). EIA exercise is during planning stage. This must followed with environmental management plan((EMP) which during implementation  stage. Other include periodically monitoring and audit program which depend on EIA approval condition.  Other job created are as environmental officer. Project that not fall under prescribed activity still need to comply with some regulation such as environmental quality (clean act) regulation 2014, environmental quality (sewage) regulation 2009 and etc. Other than that, big company which has iso 14000 will have their own environmental department which usually fall under health, safety and environment. HSE\ESH\SHE which the term is depend what priority to the company. Example for oil n gas field used to use HSE, construction used SHE.

Environmental prospect

It quite surprising each time i ask new graduate in environmental about what do their expect about their job prospect, they can't give a good answer. Most of them do not know what do there will be after graduate either as Department of Environment (DOE) officer or working related environmental sector. Yes it not straight forward as Doctor, Pilot, and Engineer.

If i ask about the Environmental Impact Assessment, there will give answer "i had heard it during classes' and then there will give very common answer. Unfortunately what there learn is more toward international law, exp Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Malaysia is heading to right direction. Environmental will become important aspect due new regulation and amendment of the act to fix any loophole. Industries start to feel the important of it, more because of the penalty if not comply with current regulation. New regulation introduce had shown more stringent on water quality discharge standard and emission standard. The benefit of course to the future graduate in environmental, and new technology.

The future is lies on environmental law, enforcement, professional expert, and the awareness from industries and public. To date environmental always fall behind as safety since there is involve money but if we look at the other perspective. There is so much can be avoided and cater at first place such as issue of flooding, landslide, oil spill and others if there are all in the know. Special care or standard of operating procedure can be done to ensure the no undesirable accident and catastrophic event to happen,

Apart from that, loss of habitat and forest is always negligible since it difficult to quantify it. Carbon trade and other incentive introduced is to value the loss and make people appreciate by reducing it. Whether through carbon sink, converting of methane to carbon dioxide, use of sustainable energy to make a better world.

After 3 years........ I'm back

It been 3 years i'm not update this blog. I'm still in this field, consultation in environmental study. For the past 3 years, there a lot of project i involved.  I would like to share the knowledge in this blog. Hope it will benefit to the reader.