ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: LAW573

TEST

PREPARED BY:
NAME STUDENT NUMBER
MUHAMMAD IZZAT BIN MOHD ASRI 2019361951

CLASS:
BAE 6C

PREPARED FOR:
DR SARAH BINTI SULAIMAN

SUBMISSION DATE:
18 DECEMBER 2019

Environmental Law
Question 2

Is the law and policy in Malaysia effective in combating water pollution?

Malaysia is one of the countries that known for its richness in natural and uniqueness
of the high biodiversity countries in the world consists of renewable and non-renewable
resources that may include in every sectors of the country including the mineral resources,
forestry, fisheries, agriculture, marine, poultry and without it which we cannot live. Malaysia
is rich in natural resources and its traditional economic strength lay in commodities. As a
Malaysian, I have been so proud to be one of the citizens here because Malaysia known for
their beauty of cultural and many tourists visit Malaysia to experience these specialties. The
government in Malaysia also comprises 13 states and 3 federal territories. Each state has its
own written constitution, legislative assembly, and executive council, which is responsible to
the legislative assembly and headed by a chief minister.

However, Malaysia have a few problems that people keeps on talking as it still
cannot find the solutions. One of the problems is the water pollution that have been
happening since 2012. Air pollution is defined as the presence of one or more contaminants
in the outdoor atmosphere, the indoor atmosphere or combinations thereof in such qualities
and such duration as may be or may tend to be injurious to humans, plants or animal life. In
several large cities, the amount of air pollutants is increasing with time and at times exceeds
the levels prescribed by national ambient air-quality guideline. There are currently three
major sources of air pollution in the Malaysian environment, namely mobile, stationary and
open burning sources. Every country must be having their own law and policy in combating
the water pollution.

Based on recent issues this year, the law and policy in Malaysia are definitely not
effective in combating water pollution. There are a few flaws in the River Management Laws.
There are a few constitutional limitations on the law itself. Pollution control is in the hands of
Department of Environment and it has no control over the licensing of industrial activities.
Other than that, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) is given the administrative
task of taking care of the rivers but legally, it does not have the jurisdiction and control over
the management of the rivers.

Another issue is, lack of water supply also recently happened in the area of Klang
Valley, Selangor, Malaysia. Malaysia’s total population, as of 2018, is 32.3823 million, with
the most populous state Selangor recording 6.475 million residents, while Kuala Lumpur has
1.79 million and Putrajaya 97,200, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s
(DOSM) latest figures released last month. The water supply disruptions are either
scheduled or unscheduled. According to the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources’
(KATS) latest available figures, Selangor is consistently the state that suffered the most
number of unscheduled water supply interruptions for the years 2014 to 2017. Selangor
topping the list for unscheduled water cuts by accounting those incidents in 2017.
 By this incident, it troubles most of the residents in the stated area. However, the
reason it happened was told water pipes that tend to burst are usually the asbestos cement
type, revealing the scale of the problem. This matter also lead into the water pollution as
Sungai Pencala for example, it’s sources of pollution come from domestic and industrial
sewerage, effluents from livestock farms, manufacturing and agro-based industries,
suspended solids from mining, housing and road construction, logging and clearing of forest
and heavy metals from factories.

Another limitation is the Water Act 1920, does not have national application as it only
applies to Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Selangor, Malacca, Penang and the Federal
Territory. In relation to these states, the Water Act provides that the ‘entire property in and
control of all rivers in any States is solely vested in the Rulers’. This means that the control
of rivers is in the hands of the State Government. The Water Act was designed to prohibit
activities affecting rivers, such as diversion of water from rivers, pollution of rivers and
damage to riverbanks. It does however, allow for interference of the river with approvals or
license from the State Authority. To what extent the Water Act has been enforced effectively
remains doubtful, given the state of the rivers in the country.

The Department of Environment (DOE) program continued monitoring of the quality of

river water in 2014 to determine the status of water quality of the river and to detect changes
in water quality of the river. They found that 52% of the river were found to be clean, 39%
slightly contaminated and 9% contaminated. Many automatic water qualities monitoring the
stations that are installed to detect changes in river water quality on a continuous basis.
Government has set up a total maximum daily load (TMDL) management method would
assist the government in preventing excess pollution of rivers. A TMDL determines a
pollutant’s reduction target and allocates load reductions necessary to the source(s) of the
pollutant.

This is one of government’s law and policy is alternative in reducing the water
pollution. Local, state and federal governments need to include TMDL management to
control loading of effluent discharge from industries, based on the assimilative capacity of
watercourses receiving the discharges. TMDL management must be made mandatory
nationwide, in planning and development, taking into consideration seasonal variations in
water quality, and include a margin of safety to account for uncertainty in predicting how well
pollutant reductions will result in meeting water quality standards. However, precautionary
measures are futile if the public continue to wastewater and treat waterways as open waste
disposal channels. Our per capita water consumption remains high. We are still losing one-
third of our treated water as non-revenue water.

Hence, this means that all the problems regarding the water pollution should be settle
because the organization already been created in order to combat the water pollution.
However, despite having strict laws such as the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and action
being taken against the perpetrators, river pollution is still happening. This then poses the
question if the punishment under Section 25 of the Act is an effective deterrent to stop
wrongdoers from contaminating rivers. In the Act, those responsible in contaminating rivers
will be taken to court and fined up to RM100, 000 or face a jail term up to five years or both.
 On top of that, in believing that there are still other initiative the government should do
in combating the water pollutions is happening as based on the research, the Section 121(1)
of the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) 2006 states that those who contaminate or cause
the contamination of a water supply with the intention to cause death, knowing that it could
likely cause death or that it would endanger lives, can be sentenced to death if someone
dies as a result. Those convicted can also be punished with imprisonment of up to 20 years.
If death was not caused, whipping can be meted out. Unfortunately, the level of awareness
and lack of expertise at the disposal of government agencies involving environmental
offences is alarmingly weak, as is the will to pursue such matters. This matter lead to the
water pollution in rivers or leaks. Many residents did not get the high quality of water. It is
also affecting the healthy and the nature’s condition.

The answer for the question is the law and policy in Malaysia are still not effective in
combating the water pollution. Statistic shows that until these days, the water pollutions are
still happening, it is just some of the news get the awareness from the government and some
others did not get the awareness. It is affecting the whole organization as it affects the angler
that might lose their source of income. In humans, drinking or consuming polluted water in
any way has many disastrous effects on our health. It causes typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and
various other diseases. As for the Ecosystems, there are extremely dynamic and respond to
even small changes in the environment. Water pollution can cause an entire ecosystem to
collapse if left unchecked.

Other than that’s, it also effects the food chain where it is disruption in food chains
happens when toxins and pollutants in the water are consumed by aquatic animals such as
fish, shellfish and others which are then consumed by humans. This question makes the
studies reviews the state of river water quality and sources of river water pollution in
Malaysia. The number of the polluted river is declined over the period. They also observed
that beverage industries are the major source of pollution in this country. This will review the
environmental policy related to water pollution and studies related to water pollution and
health impacts. Finally, we can conclude that, the law and policy in Malaysia still not effective
in combating the water pollution.