The possible presence of 10 organochlorine insecticides (aldrin, heptachlor, lindane, endosulfan, p,p’-DDE, p,p-DDT, methoxychlor, chlordane, endrin and dieldrin) in the sediment and water of a lake and river that flow through the Kelab Danau UKM were examined. Altogether six sampling sites were surveyed and three samplings within a period of three months were carried out in 2001. The insecticides were analysed by using gas chromatography equipped with an electron capture detector. The results showed that endrin, chlordane and aldrin were present in all water samples with concentrations for endrin: 0.02-0.21 µg/L, chlordane: 0.05-0.16 µg/L and aldrin: 0.03-0.13 µg/L. Lindane and heptachlor were rarely detected in the water samples. For sediment, lindane, endrin and heptachlor were detected in all sediment samples. Their levels in sediments were 0.28-0.53 µg/kg for lindane, 0.06-0.53 µg/kg for heptachlor and 1.06-2.06 µg/kg for endrin. Insecticides such as p,p' -DDE, p,p-DDT, methoxychlor, endosulfan and dieldrin were not detected in sediments or water during most samplings. The presence of organochlorine insecticides in the aquatic environment of the golf club area may be attributed to the input from usage. Another source would be from the river upstream outside the golf club flow through an area of oil palm plantation, where these insecticides might have been used for pest control in the past.
Indicators, whether referred to as ecological, biological or environmental, help us in assessing environmental conditions. Hypothetically, joint influences are predicted of the parameters associated with the number of water-borne, food-borne and vector-borne cases in study areas. Regression analysis of the dependent variables in water—borne diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, Dysentery and Hepatitis indicated that the total coly°orm, fecal colform, residual chlorine, mean monthly rainfall and temperature influence almost hay of the cases in the 3 District of Serernban. Thus, coordinated monitoring of physical, chemical and biological parameters is needed to continue to build databases and to develop models integrating environnrental and social conditions, consequences and costs.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti punca berlakunya banjir di Segamat pada 17 hingga 21 Disember 2006. Kegiatan termasuklah mengumpul, menilai dan mengalisis data taburan hujan dari Januari 1998 hingga Disember 2006 serta menganalisis data telemetri harian bagi aras dan luahan air sungai pada Disember 2006. Satu set data hujan harian, bulanan dan tahunan dari Stesen Felda Medoi, Segamat telah dianalisis dan dihubungkait dengan data telemetri. Data taburan hujan selama 8 tahun tersebut menunjukkan kawasan Bandar Segamat menerima hujan bulanan yang berjulat daripada 2.5 mm (Februari 2004) sehingga 536.8 mm (Januari 2003). Taburan hujan bulanan Oktober sehingga Disember 2006 menunjukkan kenaikan secara positif, iaitu daripada 118 mm sehingga 435 mm/bulan tetapi berlaku penurunan (392 mm) pada Januari 2007. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa hujan lebat yang luar biasa dan keadaan bentuk topografi yang rendah dan beralun di kawasan kajian adalah penyebab utama banjir di Segamat.
The risks of mercury use have prompted the establishment of Minamata Convention on Mercury which placed strong emphasis on management of mercury-added products. This convention aims to reduce and phase out the use, manufacturing and trade of mercury-added products including batteries, switches and non-electronic measuring devices. This commitment will cause significant impacts especially in the developing countries in designing the right approach to achieve it. This is also true for medical industry which is well known for the utilization of mercury-added devices and dental amalgam in its services but had embarked on efforts in eliminating mercury for many years. The experiences learned within a medical facility can be useful in efforts to meet this global ambition of mercury phase out. This paper aims to provide conceptual discussion on the challenges faced by developing countries and lessons learned from medical facility that can helps the formulation of appropriate approaches to manage mercury-added products. The paper adopted medical industry as a case study and used document analysis to discuss the issue. The main challenges identified for developing countries include lacks of capacity, funding, data and newer technologies. Based on analysis of previous studies, this study proposed a mercury management framework in medical facility and identified the recommended practices, namely technological application, policy instrument, capacity building and guidelines development. These identified approaches are found to have specific relationships between cost and potential impacts, hence giving flexibility for adoption based on the available resources in promoting better mercury management system.
Despite many good policies and institutions, the coastal environment of Langkawi continues to deteriorate. This could be due to lack of effective governance as well as unregulated waste discharge. Evidences collected from the literature during 1996 to 2013 also revealed a significant increase in the concentrations of Zn (R2 = 0.78) and Pb (R2 = 0.12) in the sediment. This appears to be the result of large volume of terrestrial runoff that brings these metals originating from extensive anthropogenic activities. It is a vital indicator of coastal pollution. It is a matter of concern that in many cases Pb concentration in the sediment exceeded the world average value 20 μg/g as well as Canadian Interim Sediment Quality Standard of 35 μg/g for the coastal areas. Similarly, the metal pollution index (MPI) measured over a period of 2007 to 2009 in fish also indicated an increasing trend of pollution in Langkawi. The maximum MPI value (4.87) was recorded in Spanish mackerel. Since pollution of coastal environment has serious implications for marine biodiversity and health of seafood consumers, measures are required to address this problem. Use of constructed wetland might be effective in reducing the coastal pollution as this will filter the effluent and waste before their mixing with the coastal water. Furthermore, enabling the stakeholders to play the environmental stewardship role will ensure better governance of coastal ecosystem and effective implementation of policies, envisaging an improved monitoring of waste/effluent discharge into the coastal marine environment. These measures are among the actions necessary for achieving a sustainable coastal environment of Langkawi.
The hydrology hydraulic model is established to assess environmental information on hydrology which
can be used to investigate causes of various environmental problems at the river and natural lake
catchment. This study reports on sediment concentrations at a river using a gravimetric method to
investigate the hydrology system at a lake catchment. The measurement was carried out at the
upstream, midstream, and downstream stations on the river in normal, rainy and post-rainy seasons.
The stations are located along the Chini River, which are connected to a catchment lake (located at
latitude 3°26’36.41”E-3°27’03.26”E and longitude 102°54’31.94”N-102°53’35.49”N). From the
measurements, it is estimated that on average 787.621 tonne/km2 of sediment is transferred into the
natural lake via Chini River annually. The correlation of statistical analysis between the sediment load
and discharge study was very significant (R2 = 0.980). There is a linear relation between the area of
the catchment and sediment load of the connecting river as supported by other studies in Malaysia.
The outcome of the study suggests that the high sedimentation is due to land use activity, existence of
the dam at the downstream of Chini River that traps the sediment, reverse flow from the Pahang River
into Chini River and riverbank erosion factors. From this study, the sediment control steps are
suggested such as creating conservation partially at the lake catchment, modifying the dam system,
riverbank erosion control, and application of “Monkey Cheek” system. These sediment control steps
may help to clean up the high suspended sediment at the whole lake system area, hence solving and
mitigating the environmental problems in the natural lake catchment.