The incident of beach pollution in Batu Ferringhi in year 2014 has created a major concern over water
quality at the tourists’ haven. In order to understand advection and dispersion of pollutants in the area,
a coastal hydrodynamic model of Batu Ferringhi beach was developed in this study by taking into
consideration its wind, tide, coastal current and riverine runoff. The model was calibrated and validated
through observations from adjacent coastal monitoring stations. Simulation was then carried out to
investigate scenario of the constituent water quality which originates from the three rivers in the vicinity.
Results showed high concentrations of water quality parameters observed near the headland towards the
northeast of the study area, with intermittent patchy escape which may retain more than one-third the
initial concentrations, weighted by the river discharge. Even more worrying is that localised trapping of
up to three-quarter the initial weighted concentrations also occurs at the beach, owing to the interactions
between river flow and longshore current.