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(Last updated: 31 Jul 2007)
Trends and opportunities
The market
Water and wastewater
Under the Federal constitution in Malaysia, each state is responsible for maintaining and developing its own water supply. Public water supplies in Malaysia are administered (planned, designed, constructed, operated and maintained) by three local authorities: The State Public Works Department (PWD), The State Water Supply Department (WSD) and The State Water Board (SWB).
The water supply system in Malaysia is focused on providing adequate and safe water for domestic users and to meet the needs of industry and the agricultural sector. Emphasis is given to the provision and conservation of potential fresh water sources and the upgrading and rehabilitation of the existing water supply system to improve its efficiency.
Interstate and interbasin water transfers are currently being expanded to address the problem of uneven distribution of supply, particularly in states suffering from water shortage.
In the future, it has been proposed that the Federal Government take over water management from State Governments to give greater focus on long-term water resource planning and development. One of the initiatives being undertaken is the setting up of a Water and Sanitation Commission to study available water resources and the possibilities of transferring water supply from one state to another.
About 90 to 95 per cent of the total volume of industrial wastewater originates from food and beverage processing, industrial chemicals and products, and textile plants or dye mills. The major polluters are small to medium scale industries (SMIs).
The SMIs have been encouraged to adopt cleaner technologies in their production processes. To increase the general environmental awareness among the SMIs, SIRIM Berhad intends to intensify efforts to collect and disseminate information on cleaner technologies. Training programs such as environmental costing, auditing, reporting and lifecycle assessments and ISO 14001 will be conducted to encourage firms to adopt company-wide environmental management practices.
Solid waste
The volume of solid waste generated in Malaysia is estimated to exceed 15,000 tonnes daily. The current system of manual labour, waste collection trucks and open dumps for disposal suffers from a lack of modern equipment and environmental controls.
The housing and local government is drafting a master plan on solid waste management, which includes recycling campaigns, landfills and installation of incinerators. By just recycling 22 per cent of the five million tonnes of waste, it is expected to help save the government RM88 million a year.
In addition to recycling, the government is also promoting the development of a new source of energy, biomass, which is environment-friendly and renewable.
There are 107 categories of hazardous wastes as defined by DOE. These include waste generated by the following: petroleum and oil refiners, pharmaceutical, rubber processing, chemical, and electronics and semiconductor industries. Many of these industries store their waste in drums on site or dump them into surface drains on unsecured treatment sites.
Air
Haze that occurs during dry seasons is attributed to industrial air pollution, forest fires, vehicular fumes, emission from power stations, boilers, furnaces and incinerators, and open burning activities. Open burning is routinely carried out at approximately 200 waste disposal sites throughout Malaysia.
The government is also taking steps to regulate vehicular emissions through changes to its Motor Vehicle Regulations. Regulations to mandate the use of catalytic converters in new vehicles were recently approved by the Malaysian Government. The regulations also call for the establishment of vehicular monitoring stations.
Opportunities
The following environmental sectors offer the best opportunities for Australian technologies:
- The supply of wastewater treatment systems, monitoring equipment, wastewater recycling equipment, sludge dryers and industrial purification systems. Equipment is also needed for the clean up of ground water and rivers.
- The supply of municipal sewerage treatment plant and equipment to Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) and property developers Indah Water contracts the building of treatment plants and purchases equipment on an open tender basis. The immediate demand by IWK is for new sewerage treatment parts such as pumps, aerators, mixers, filters, screens etc. and water monitoring equipment. The mid to long-term demand is for secondary treatment plants, wastewater sludge treatment and recycling, and waste water technologies.
- Opportunities exist for waste minimisation technologies, hazardous waste (toxic metal and low radioactive sludge, medical waste, etc.) recycling, and disposal and bio-remediation technologies. There is also an urgent need for oil reclamation technology to recover used oils from industries and ship-based sludges.
- In the air quality area, opportunities exist for vehicle emission monitoring equipment, industrial air scrubbers, stack emission analysers and control equipment, dust collectors, indoor air pollution control systems and air monitoring equipment. Factories will also be required to install stack-monitoring equipment in the near future. The first phase of this process will impact on power generation stations and boiler plants.
- The level of environmental analysis capability in Malaysia remains low. Opportunities are available for highly skilled Australian companies to partner with Malaysian companies for environmental auditing, management systems and, to a lesser degree, impact assessments. Risk analysis, a new requirement for Environmental Impact Assessment associated with petroleum and chemical industries, is being undertaken by foreign firms because of the scarcity of skilled personnel in country.
- The privatisation of solid waste management should provide opportunities to supply leading edge technologies, equipment and landfill services. Opportunities also exist for small and medium-sized municipal waste incinerators, waste recycling and composting, landfill design and landfill leachate treatment services.
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