Intel Wastewater Treatment Course

Myself and Tengku Fazli Tengku Yahya (of MICET, UniKL) was recently invited by UTM's Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP) to conduct a workshop on Wastewater Treatment Technology for Intel Corporation Execs. @ Intel-U, in Penang. The workshop was held between the 29th - 30th November 2010. I would say that the overall event was a success, with active participation from the attendees.

I would like to thank CEPP and Intel Corp. for having us and hope you found whatever knowledge that we shared interesting and useful.

Two-Day Exhibition cum Forum and Technical Talks on,Water and Industrialized Building System (IBS) - 8 to 9th December 2010

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, is organizing a 2 day exhibition on Water and Industrialized Building System (IBS), this 8 - 9th December, 2010. Click here to download the brochure.

Benchmarking River Water Quality In Malaysia (IEM Jurutera)

Click here to download full article.

ANNOUNCEMENT ! 12th IWA International Specialised Conference on Watershed & River Basin Management, 14 - 16 September 2011, Recife, Brazil

Integrated River Basin Management and Climate Changes are important issues for the future of our planet. IWA presents a very special opportunity to engage in 3 days of innovative discussion on the subjects of River Basin Management Planning, Water Resource Management, Climate Change, Water Supply Protection, Governance Methods, Flood Control & Decision Support System.

Join other experts in exchanging ideas and exploring networking opportunities during the IWA Watershed and River Basin Management Conference, 14 – 16 September 2011 in the littoral tropical city of Recife, Brazil.

FOR FURTHER INFO. CLICK HERE OR DOWNLOAD CALL FOR PAPERS HERE.

Drains are not bins

Article below is from the Straits Times, Singapore (11 May 2010)

By Victoria Vaughan

PUB's eye-catching stickers bring home the message - drains lead to reservoirs. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN

DESPITE harsher penalties and numerous anti-littering campaigns, 14 tonnes of rubbish - equal to the weight of 10 cars - ends up in Singapore's drains every day.

A cigarette butt thrown into a drain in Bishan, for example, can travel 10km to the Marina Bay reservoir, which, by the end of the year, will provide 10 per cent of the Republic's water.

This is the message that colourful campaign stickers placed on 49 drains across Singapore hope to spread - the drains beneath your feet lead to reservoirs, so don't use them as bins.

PUB, the national water agency, launched the Wonderful World of Water yesterday, with stickers being placed on and around drains in Tampines, Bishan, Jurong and the Environment Building at Newton, as a pilot project to get reactions from the public prior to launching an art competition for drain covers on May 21.

Every year, more than 5,000 tonnes of rubbish are collected from the 32 rivers and 7,000km of drains in Singapore. It costs the PUB $4.5 million a year to clean up the Marina catchment area, which is the largest and most urbanised, covering approximately one-sixth of Singapore's land area.

This amount of litter, however, went down by a tonne last year compared with the previous year, and PUB believes it is due to the enforcement efforts of the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Cameron Highlands

We recently went to Cameron Highlands to conduct a water quality study of Sg. Rengil (main-stem) and Sg. Berok located near Lojing. The current water quality conditions were pristine with no apparent degradation occurring on the upstream reaches of both rivers. This was reflective of minimal anthropogenic activities taking place there-in, save perhaps an Orang Asli village located near the confluence point of both rivers. From visual observation alone one can hypothesize, that most water quality constituents should fall within the Class I designation of the INWQS. The Orang Asli here utilize the water source from both rivers for their daily necessities.

This condition however changed moving downstream, where agricultural activities become more predominant, resulting in heightened TSS and Turbidity levels. Sg. Belatop (shown below) is a good example, where even without precipitation and runoff effects, turbid water conditions were still apparent, due to land irrigation practices which transports SS into the water column. Interviews with the local village people indicated that Sg. Belatop at one time, used to be teaming with aquatic life; this condition however has since changed as can be seen from the photo and video below.

IWA YWP W & RBM SG Pre-Conference Workshop Pics

The Watershed and River Basin Management Specialist Group (W & RBM SG) recently co-organized a pre-conference workshop at this year's IWA Young Water Professionals (YWP) conference held at the Best Western Premier Seri Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between the 2 - 4 of Mac 2010. The workshop itself was conducted on the 1st of March 2010, with W & RBM SG being represented by its Management Committee member, Mr. Zaki Zainudin.

The workshop was entitled, "Transboundary Water Management Issues and Applications of River Water Quality Modelling In Integrated Catchment Management". Participants ranged from diversified backgrounds including academics, researchers, consultants, engineers, as well as government officials. Below are some photos taken during the event.

My Students......

IWA Young Water Professionals Conference and Workshop 2010