Sewerage company reflects on efforts to keep Malaysian waters clean
SINCE the early days of the nation’s birth, Malaysians have always placed hygiene as a top priority. From the 1900s, the use of the bucket system to remove human wastes gave way to more hygienic systems that today has evolved.
Along the way, there is a growing recognition that wastewater treatment is the solution to community sanitation by properly treating wastes into safer forms that is then released into the environment.
As Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) celebrates the country’s independence, the company reflects on the evolution of sewage processing and plans to expand its role to be the premier wastewater company.
According to IWK CEO Faizal Othman, as the population grew and villages became towns and then cities, the need for more efficient wastewater management arose.
He said today’s mechanised sewage treatment plants service larger areas and impart a positive impact on the environment.
Modern processes separate the wastes into effluent, which when treated, yields cleaner water that can be used in industries or released to the environment. The second component – the sludge – is further processed for safe disposal or even recycled.
These functions become a form of resource protection that helps rivers become cleaner and provides a positive effect on the water supply.
“It actually has the function of cleaning the river,” said Faizal.
Such large plants cater to larger populations; for example, the Pantai 2 regional sewage treatment plant serves 1.4 million people, while another is the upcoming Langat plant which is built with certain unique features.
IWK is thus poised to ensure public hygiene, sanitation, environment protection, resource protection and now even resource recovery.
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IWK aims to be the premier waste water management company by 2020, says Faizal.
Clean-up initiatives
As part of the National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations, IWK will implement several initiatives from Aug 27 to Sept 14.
To celebrate 61 years of independence, IWK will desludge septic tanks at 61 selected areas such as charitable homes and places of worship – institutions that normally find it difficult to engage IWK’s services.
Unconnected systems in the form of septic tanks amount to about 1.2 million tanks, as well as an equal number of the pour-flush system, mostly used in the kampung. These are not connected to IWK’s system and septic tanks should be emptied periodically – at least every two years.
“As of today, out of about 2.5 million septic tanks and pour-flush types, less than 10% are serviced regularly and 90% do not receive adequate treatment services, and this contributes to river pollution,” said Faizal.
To assist, IWK ensures the B40 segment of society receives the same level of service, while providing assistance to this segment when it comes to paying for the services.
Along the way, it is eager to share the importance of treating such wastes via programmes that engage the public.
River revival
Faizal also mentioned the “Friends Of The Rivers” programme which identified 21 strategic rivers located within the vicinity of its 21 unit offices all over the country to receive cleanups.
IWK works together with universities, communities and other major companies with a similar vision and uses its river project to engage in educating these parties.
Through the “Friends Of The Rivers” initiative, IWK aims to also identify the root causes for problems resulting from direct discharges.
These problems could be due to factories, commercial areas, restaurants and houses that are not served with proper treatment services. When they discharge their wastes within an area, these collect and compound into a larger problem further down river.
In IWK’s programmes, customer engagement programmes conduct evaluations to monitor how the public views its services. In that way, the community helps IWK meet its objectives.
There is also an ongoing programme that provides 30% to 50% of the treated water to industries that only require industrial-grade standard water supply, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Through that, IWK hopes to utilise 30% of the treated effluent by year 2030.
As IWK envisions to be the premier waste water management company by 2020, it builds its objective to go beyond managing sewage, expanding towards managing industrial wastes from factories, markets and food outlets.
Faizal said IWK is also looking into managing wetlands – a concept of waterways that offer the opportunity to instal treatment before the water gets released into the rivers.
Into the future
IWK developed a four-year plan starting with manpower excellence and optimisation via Transformasi IWK 2020 which was initiated last year to create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
Competitions among the employees to create innovations that help the company be more efficient and cost-saving in its processes was an outcome of the plan.
This year became one of innovation and technology, the next year is for business diversification, while 2020 will look into assessing the progress.
IWK’s engagement with the community will also be transformational and progressive as it desludges and processes wastes within an area, as well as educate and raise awareness in the community of wastewater treatment benefits.
Following its theme of IWK Sayang Malaysia, IWK will be eliciting pledges from its employees on how they plan to pledge for Malaysia as individuals. It also invites customers to respond with their expectations of the company.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2018/08/31/transforming-waste-management-sewerage-company-reflects-on-efforts-to-keep-malaysian-waters-clean/#C4qRh2QHJaI3svTk.99
