Bauxite Stockpiles have yet to be Cleared in Kuantan. Seriously

Bauxite Stockpiles have yet to be Cleared in Kuantan. Seriously

Two years after a moratorium on all bauxite mining was imposed in Pahang, local stockpiles have still not been cleared. Some 10 tons of bauxite still remains. In other words, the clear-up has been manifestly sluggish, even by local standards, to say the least. And so it goes. What seemed…

Water Pollution remains an Acute Problem

Water Pollution remains an Acute Problem

A chicken farm making fertilizer from chicken droppings in Johor let large amounts of ammonia leach into the Johor River sporadically. As a result, much of the river’s water became badly polluted, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without clean tap water. A local waterworks also had to close down…

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…

UN: Asian Nations need to stop Burning through their Resources

UN: Asian Nations need to stop Burning through their Resources

Nations in the Asia and Pacific are among the least resource-efficient in the world. In 2015, the region’s countries ended up using one-third more materials to produce each unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than they did in 1990, according to the United Nations. Meanwhile, developing countries use five times…

Get on your Bike for Water in Ulu Muda

Get on your Bike for Water in Ulu Muda

Water. Malaysia has lots of it. That bounty has lulled many citizens into a false sense of complacence about the country’s water reserves. Yet Malaysia’s freshwater sources need to be managed better. Much better. If you would like to help spread that message, you will be able to do so…

Throw the Book at Miners Breaking the Bauxite Ban in Kuantan

Throw the Book at Miners Breaking the Bauxite Ban in Kuantan

Since January last year all mining of bauxite in Pahang has been banned. So how come bauxite exports from the state have increased significantly? Yet increased they have, according to data on bauxite imports from China, which is the final destination of all the bauxite mined in Malaysia. And it…

PM calls for better Water Management

PM calls for better Water Management

That Malaysia is blessed with abundant water sources is well known. So is the fact that many of those water sources are badly polluted and poorly treated. But it’s good to know that the country’s politician are aware of this and want to do something about it, including Prime Minister…

We need to Start treating Water as a Precious resource in Malaysia

We need to Start treating Water as a Precious resource in Malaysia

If there’s something Malaysia doesn’t seem to lack, it’s water. The country is blessed with abundant rivers and each year more than 900 million cubic liters of the life-giving substance fall from the sky, ready for the taking. And yet Malaysia, or at least large parts of the country from Peninsular Malaysia…

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…

Treat our Water Sources much Better

Treat our Water Sources much Better

Water. Malaysians have a lot of it. Except when they don’t. In Selangor alone, on a weekend in late September, more than a million people at 30 locations did not. They found themselves without enough treated water for days. The cause: contaminants were discovered at the Sungai Semenyih Water Treatment…

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…

Malaysia’s Water Sources ‘will need’ much better Management

Malaysia’s Water Sources ‘will need’ much better Management

When it comes to water, Malaysians scarcely lack for any – save for episodic spells of drought here and there. In fact, the life-giving substance tends to be so plentiful and widely available across the country, thanks to its climate (24 trillion gallons of rainwater each year) and its topography…

Water-borne Disease Takes its Toll in Sarawak

Water-borne Disease Takes its Toll in Sarawak

An elderly woman living in Sungai Koyan has succumbed to a disease caused by water-borne bacteria. The likely culprit behind this latest fatality: water pollution. Epe Let, a resident of the community of Uma Juman in Sungai Asap village in Sarawak, died of melioidosis, an infectious disease triggered by Burkholderia pseudomallei…

Malaysia’s Forests May Not Be Growing After All

Malaysia’s Forests May Not Be Growing After All

When it comes to the environment, truly good news is hard to come by. And even when there is some good news, if it sounds too good to be true, it might well be. And so it could have proved with a recent report, which Clean Malaysia also showcased, that…

Some Villagers in Kuantan Lost More Than Just Incomes in Bauxite Fiasco

Some Villagers in Kuantan Lost More Than Just Incomes in Bauxite Fiasco

We live in a complex world with people often having competing agendas, and so the case has been with the three-month moratorium on bauxite mining in Pahang. Whereas environmentalists across Malaysia celebrated the government’s decision to outlaw all mining activities, effective of January 15, some locals in Kuantan, the ground…