A new Environmental Protection Act is in the Making

A new Environmental Protection Act is in the Making

When the current Environmental Quality Act was enacted in 1974, Malaysia’s environment was in a significantly better shape. Most of Sabah and Sarawak were still covered in thick forests, while mainland Malaysia, too, boasted large swathes of virgin forest. Air and water pollution were yet endemic and the nation’s marine…

Johor wants Better Laws on Water Pollution

Johor wants Better Laws on Water Pollution

A problem with water pollution is this: those who actively engage in polluting Malaysia’s water sources can routinely do so with impunity. Why? Because environmental laws are wanting and rarely enforced vigorously enough. If the government in Johor has its way, however, this will change not just in the Malaysian…

Some Rivers in Sarawak are ‘Dead’

Some Rivers in Sarawak are ‘Dead’

Several rivers in Sarawak are as good as dead. They’ve become so polluted that they are no longer able to support well-functioning ecosystems. In effect, they have become little more than open sewers where only bacteria and a few hardy species of plants and animals can thrive. Several other species…

Dogs in India turn Blue … from Water Pollution

Dogs in India turn Blue … from Water Pollution

We’ve all seen blue dogs. We’ve seen them in cartoons and children’s books. Yet in Mumbai some residents were recently surprised to see real-life blue dogs walk the streets. In an industrial area of the Indian metropolis several stray dogs recently took on distinct bright blue hues. While the canines’ new…

Birth control Pills are Turning some Male Fish Transgender

Birth control Pills are Turning some Male Fish Transgender

A lot of the harm we inflict on the environment isn’t on purpose. Rather, it’s a byproduct of our activities. Take global warming. We’ve been burning insane amounts of fossil fuels so as to power our homes, factories and vehicles. Yet as a byproduct of that we’ve been creating a…

Natural Sugar-based Filter can Purify polluted Water

Natural Sugar-based Filter can Purify polluted Water

Water contamination is a serious problem in Malaysia not least because polluting water sources is easy but cleaning them up may involve a Herculean task. Yet help is on the way, in the form of science. Scientists at Northwestern University in the US have come up with a cheap and…

Mining Ban may be extended Further

Mining Ban may be extended Further

Another three months. That’s how long Malaysia’s government may extend the moratorium on bauxite mining in Pahang. A good thing, too, all things considered. The ban has been in place, through repeated extensions, since January 15 last year and is due to expire at the end of this month. The cause…

Pollution can be Deadly to Children

Pollution can be Deadly to Children

Pollution kills. Literally. Worse, it routinely kills the most vulnerable: children, the inform, the elderly. Young children are especially at risk of severe health hazards from pollution, with almost two million of them dying as a result each year. Pause to think about that: millions of young lives lost because…

Kuantan Rivers have been Polluted with Heavy Metals

Kuantan Rivers have been Polluted with Heavy Metals

Some experts expressed fears almost a year ago that a pernicious side-effect of unregulated bauxite mining in Pahang might well have been the pollution of local water sources with heavy metals. “Almost all the water for consumption in Kuantan is drawn downstream from the mines,” observed Dr. Maketab Mohamed, an associate professor at Universiti…

Cases of Water Pollution highlight Lack of effective Law Enforcement

Cases of Water Pollution highlight Lack of effective Law Enforcement

The water of Sungai Semantan in Pahang recently became so badly polluted that two local water treatment plants had to be shut down, leaving locals without clean water. That’s a fact. What remains to be determined is who is responsible. The likely culprits: three factories that may have been dumping…

We need to Manage our Water Better

We need to Manage our Water Better

Water. Malaysia, being a tropical country with plenty of rainfall, has plenty of the life-giving substance. Or does it? Droughts have become increasingly common across the land with prolonged periods of water shortages in many badly hit areas in eight states. Two years ago Selangor was one of the states that were…