Water Pollution

Our mother Earth is filled with water. 2/3 of it is water. However DRINKING WATER or freshwater is still scarce as it only consists of 0.3% of that water. Yet, we as the occupant of Earth do not know how to appreciate it. Imagine one day when we no longer have any clean water supply and need to drink from the water from the image below:

Even with modern day's technology of water purification, water cannot be treated completely. As Malaysia is fast becoming an industrial country, many of her rivers have become polluted. Rivers are used as an outlet for waste chemicals from factories to waste away. Of course this is very profitable to the factory as they can save large sums of money but the waters and the lives that resolve around them are in deep trouble. Some people from the rural areas of Malaysia depend on rivers for their everyday activities. They depend on the river for everything: bath, water supply, watering corps. Now they are in deep trouble. Water pollution is a serious problem in Malaysia and impacts negatively on the sustainability of water resources. It reduces the total water availability considerably as the cost of treating polluted waters is too high and in some instances, polluted waters are not treatable for consumption.


Quality of Malaysian River Water, 1992-1998

Category	1992		1993		1994		1995		1996		1997		1998
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Very polluted	7	8.1	11	9.5	14	12.1	14	12.2	13	11.2	25	21.4	16	13
Slightly polluted	55	63.2	73	62.9	64	55.2	53	46.1	61	52.6	68	58.1	71	59
Clean	25	28.7	32	27.6	38	32.7	48	41.7	42	36.2	24	20.5	33	28
Total	87	100	116	100	116	100	115	100	116	100	117	100	120	100

From the table above we can see that Malaysia's water is really still okay.. thanks to the numerous efforts made to treat the rivers. Of course, if every Malaysian just does their part, the percentage of clean water will be totally higher 
than that and the government can also save money.

 The pie chart above shows the composition of water pollutions sources in 2004.17,991 water pollution point sources in 2004 comprising mainly sewage treatment plants (54%), manufacturing industries (38%), animal farms (5%) and agro-based industries (3%).

In year 2006, the number of rivers in the cleanest category was almost double that of 2005.The number of polluted river basins were also down by more than half. Only seven of Malaysia’s 146 river basins were categorized as polluted in year 2006, down from 15 the year before. All the polluted river basins were in Peninsular Malaysia, with Johor topping the list.

Among the worst polluted river in the world are located in the location listed below:

1. Dzerzinsk, Russia

2.Chernobyl, Ukraine

3. Linfen, Shanxi, Province, China 

4.La Oroya, Peru

5.Kabwe, Zambia 

6.Ranipet, India

It is enough if we do not think of our future, why should pitiful marine lifes suffer for our actions?

Like us they are the creation of God and they have the rights to live.