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PETALING JAYA: The current heatwave has led to reptiles, particularly snakes, “intruding” into houses to seek respite from the heat and in search of water.According to snake expert Steven Wong, natural water sources such as ponds and puddles tend to dry up during hot spells but this precious resource could be found in water catchment areas such as drains.“These areas remain wet, so reptiles which in general prefer humid areas seek out places with high humidity levels,” he said.Wong, who runs the herpetofauna special interest group at the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Nature Society, said the heat would drive some snakes out of their natural habitat in search of cooler surroundings.Wong said more venomous species such as the Sumatran Spitting Cobra and Monocled Cobra are also quite tolerant of human habitation and would venture into urban dwelling in search of mice.

Snakes which preferred dark spaces are likely to take shelter in places with no direct sunlight such as burrows or rubbish stacks, he said.Wong said snakes have been known to hide in other areas such as upturned flower pots and pipes which have gaps and crevices for them to enter.A snake expert with the Fire and Rescue Department said snakes are shy creatures and would prefer to avoid any contact with humans.“They are just as afraid of us as we are of them,” said Senior Fire Officer II Noor Fazida Tina Mohamad Noor.Noor Fazida Tina, who is part of the department’s King Cobra Squad which deals with the removal of snakes from human dwellings, said other than the hot spell, the destruction of their natural habitats have also driven snakes to look for more conducive dwellings.“Peat and forest fires rob these animals of their homes, so naturally they would move to seek better shelter,” she said.

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SHAH ALAM: A water quality specialist has urged the government to consider new strategies to clean up the Klang River, notorious for its “teh tarik” or milk tea colour, saying efforts to address pollution so far have not been effective.Zaki Zainudin, who has studied water quality and modelling for over a decade, gave the example of the River of Life project, launched in 2012 to clean up and beautify a 10km stretch of the Klang River.The RM4.4 billion project includes river cleaning, river master planning and beautification, and river development. RM3.4 billion was allocated for clean-up operations and the remaining RM1 billion for landscaping.

“When the government announced the project, we were quite sceptical because the target was to achieve a river of Class IIB standard under the National Water Quality Standard (NWQS),” he said.Class IIB refers to water fit for recreational use and safe for bodily contact.But it was later reported that the target was switched to Class II, which excludes the criterion for bodily contact.“This was following the Water Quality Index, which is not as accurate as the NWQS and translates into different achievement targets,” Zaki added.Zaki Zainudin collects water samples during a site study.Another factor complicating rehabilitation efforts at the Klang River is the level of coliform bacteria in the water, he said.

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PETALING JAYA: More needs to be done to ensure water security for the country, say water experts.Association of Water and Energy Research (Awer) president S. Piarapakaran said that at present, Malaysia’s water security was still inadequate.“Water security is to ensure there is enough supply of water – both raw and treated water.“With the increasing population and economic activities, we need more water to meet demand.“We will (also) face harsher wet and dry conditions,” said Piarapakaran when contacted.He said that there was a need to increase the raw water reserve margin and to reduce non-revenue water, which referred to treated water that was lost before it reaches consumers, due to factors such as leakage.The increase of the water reserve margin and the decrease of non-revenue water will help boost the country’s treated water margin, he said.

“This will further buffer us from water rationing (in the future),” he added.He said that there were several factors that were adversely affecting water security in the country.“Unfortunately, we are losing forest cover fast and this affects water security,” he said, adding that government agencies and stakeholders also needed to step up on delivering solutions, instead of just preparing reports and plans.“We need to prepare to mitigate now or it will be too costly to do it in the near future,” he added.Water quality and modelling specialist Dr Zaki Zainudin said that the government needed to think “out of the box” in terms of boosting the country’s water security.“I am of the opinion that we need to think out of the box; and do away with conventional thinking in terms of tapping water resources.“For example, we have many polluted rivers such as Sungai Klang.

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SHAH ALAM: All seven dams in Selangor are at above 85% capacity and have sufficient water for the next three months, says state Infrastructure and Public Amenities, Agriculture, and Agro-Industry Committee chairman Izham Hashim.He said there was no need to take any countermeasures at the moment, but they were monitoring the situation.“We are working with the Meteorological Department to determine if there is any change in the forecast.“We were prepared for the dry spell as per information from the Met Department in December last year, which forecasted a weak El Nino until March.Izham added that the state also had significant reserve water, including off-river storage (ORS).

However, he also urged Selangor residents to reduce water consumption in view of the hot weather.He said water consumption in the state was higher than the national average."The average national water consumption is 226 litre per capita per day, but Selangor residents use 250 litres per person per day,” he said, advising the people not to use more than 170 litres per day.

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KUALA LUMPUR 22 Mac - Gabungan Persatuan-Persatuan Pengguna Malaysia (FOMCA) mencadangkan supaya dibina empangan atau loji takungan bawah tanah seperti dilaksanakan di Korea Selatan pada masa akan datang.Cadangan itu tersebut perlu berikutan ekoran bencana toksik yang berlaku di Sungai Kim Kim, Pasir Gudang, Johor baru-baru ini apabila menghadapi pelbagai krisis.Timbalan Presiden FOMCA, Mohd. Yusof Abdul Rahman berkata, jika negara membina takungan air, sumber alam itu akan mengalir ke bawah tanah dan ditempatkan dalam satu takungan besar."Kita memerlukan satu sistem pengurusan yang lebih lestari untuk simpan air bagi kegunaan akan datang," katanya kepada pemberita selepas Majlis Pelancaran Hari Air Sedunia 2019 di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taman Sea dekat sini hari ini.FOMCA menganjurkan Hari Air Sedunia 2019 yang melibatkan para pelajar SMK Taman Sea untuk memberi kesedaran di peringkat awal berkenaan kepentingan penjagaan sumber air.

Yang turut hadir, Presiden Forum Air Malaysia (FAM), Sarah James Maniam; Pengetua SMK Taman Sea Petaling Jaya, Suriyani Ismail; Pengarah Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN), Thomas Joseph Thomas; Ketua Pengurusan Air Selangor Bhd. (AIS), Kelvin Siew Weng Hue dan Naib Presiden Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor, Syamsul Hamdan.Mengulas lanjut, Mohd. Yusof berkata, tindakan dan hukuman perlu dikenakan kepada mereka yang mencemarkan sumber air supaya tidak sewenang-wenangnya membuang toksik ke sungai berhampiran."Sepatutnya mereka perlu membuang toksik di tempat yang betul dan diselenggara oleh Jabatan Alam Sekitar."Pihak berkuasa perlu mengambil tindakan tegas keatas mereka yang mencemarkan sungai terutamanya Sungai Kim-Kim kerana 80 peratus penggunaan air adalah untuk kegunaan domestik," jelasnya. - UTUSAN ONLINE

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Penggunaan kerusi khas kanak-kanak adalah perlu untuk semua lapisan golongan masyarakat

Musim cuti sekolah telah bermula. Ramai ibubapa telah merancang percutian untuk anak-anak sempena cuti sekolah. Namun begitu, adakah ibubapa telah menyediakan kerusi khas kanak-kanak di dalam kenderaan demi keselamatan si kecil?

Perlu diingatkan, kita berkongsi jalan raya dengan pelbagai jenis kenderaan berat. Lebuh raya juga akan turut sesak dengan kenderaan ringan dan kenderaan berat pada musim cuti sekolah. Tiada sebarang sekatan untuk kenderaan berat seperti di musim perayaan. Mereka boleh masuk ke lebuh raya pada bila-bila masa. Terdapat banyak kes kemalangan kenderaan berat kononnya berpunca daripada masalah brek. Oleh sebab itu, ibubapa perlu menyediakan kerusi khas untuk anak-anak di dalam kenderaan masing-masing.

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GEORGE TOWN: The Air Itam dam has sufficient raw water to meet the needs of the Air Itam township, Paya Terubong valley and surrounding areas for another 48 days.Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the effective capacity of the dam was at 49.1% on Friday, compared with 92.2% on Jan 1.“The dam’s effective capacity dropped by 43.1% in 81 days,” Chow told newsmen after visiting the dam yesterday.Effective capacity is the maximum capacity according to the dam design and the resources it has.Chow, however, said the level of Sungai Muda had fallen to below Penang Water Supply Corporation’s (PBAPP) alert level of 2m for 42 consecutive days and was 1.82m as of March 22.Kedah is releasing water into Sungai Muda from the Muda and Beris dams to meet the raw water demand in Kedah as well as Penang.

“We are concerned about the low level of Sungai Muda because it is Penang’s primary raw water resource and we will continue to be vigilant as PBAPP extracts water from this river downstream of 14 Kedah water treatment plants and four irrigation intakes,” he said.Chow said the dry season was more intense this year, as shown in the rainfall gauges at the dam which recorded 247mm of rainfall from Jan 1 to March 22.In the same period last year, the dam received 498mm of rainfall.He said PBAPP was empowered to carry out certain contingency measures if the situation warranted it.“One of it will be minimising drawdown of raw water from Air Itam dam, as far as possible, without resorting to water rationing and pumping in as much water as possible from other water treatment plants outside of the Air Itam area,” hesaid.Cloud seeding, said Chow, would be conducted if the effective capacity of the dam fell below 40%.

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GEORGETOWN: Pengumuman kerajaan untuk memperluaskan program Food Bank Malaysia ke semua universiti awam melegakan Mohammad Ariffudin Sah Harudin, 27, seorang pelajar ijazah doktor falsafah (PhD) di Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).Selama belajar di situ, pelajar jurusan geografi bandar dan metropolitan itu mengakui mengalami masalah kewangan, meskipun beliau penerima pinjaman Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Negara (PTPTN).“Sehari saya akan makan sekali atau dua kali sahaja untuk berjimat dan kadangkala perlu mencari alternatif sendiri seperti menyertai program yang menawarkan makanan percuma,” katanya kepada Bernama.Apabila mengetahui Kementerian Kewangan meluluskan RM3 juta Isnin lalu untuk Food Bank Malaysia itu diperluaskan ke semua universiti awam, beliau berkata, usaha baik kerajaan itu akan membantunya memberikan lebih tumpuan kepada pengajiannya tanpa terlalu risau tentang keperluan harian.

“Saya dari keluarga yang sederhana. Ibu saya suri rumah dan ayah saya sudah tujuh tahun meninggal dunia. Saya cuba belajar berdikari mencari peluang dan sumber-sumber yang boleh membantu saya,” katanya yang juga anak keenam daripada lapan orang adik-beradik.Pelajar Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Muhammad Amir Hakim Razali, 23, pula tidak segan menyatakan selama ini beliau menjual coklat dan kerepek selama ini bagi menampung pengajiannya dalam bidang kejuruteraan reka bentuk produk.“Saya tidak mahu bergantung sepenuhnya kepada ibu bapa saya yang bekerja sendiri di Alor Setar, Kedah. Tambahan pula adik-adik masih bersekolah. Jadi saya cubalah mencari duit belanja sendiri,” katanya.

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The National World Water Day Celebration has been held in SMK Taman Sea on 22nd March 2019. The WWD Celebration was officiated by En Yusof b Abd Rahman, Vice President of Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (FOMCA). A forum on 'Bekalan Air yang Bersih dan selamat untuk semua Moderator' was presidented by Miss Saral James Maniam as the President of Malaysian Water Forum. The panelist involved was the late Mr. Thomas a/l Joseph Thomas as the Director of Resource Planning and Engineering Services Division Water Regulatory Department (SPAN), Mr. Kelvin Siew Weng Hoe as the Head of Distribution AIR Selangor, Mr. Syamsul Hamdan as the Vice President of Water Quality and Laboratory Services Department from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd.

At a time of immense global challenges such poverty, inequalities, natural disasters, humanitarian crises and forced displacement, the theme for World Water Day 2019 is ‘Leaving No One Behind’ with an aspect on why people have been left behind and how a change could be driven to this people accessing to water and sanitation and sustainable water management.

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EACH year, World Water Day is celebrated today (March 22) with special attention on water and to inspire people to manage it sustainably and effectively. The date was officially assigned by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 and now it is celebrated worldwide in various ways — educational campaigns, musical shows, marathons or fundraising.

Every year, UN-Water will select a theme and collaborate with other UN organisations which share an interest in the year’s focus. When 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by the UN, all the countries foresee a free world where all life can prosper and no one is left behind. Hence, this year’s World Water Day theme is Leaving No One Behind — it aims to tackle water crisis by addressing reasons why marginalised groups (women, children, indigenous people, refugees, disabled people) do not have access to safe and clean water. UN-Water also emphasises that water services must meet the needs of these marginalised groups and include their voices in the decision-making process.

 Globally, about 166 million people from 18 countries are affected by water scarcity while about 270 million people from 11 countries are living under water stress issues. On the other hand, some 900 million people lack improved water supply access worldwide, and two thirds are from Asia.

  1. WORLD WATER DAY - 22nd MARCH 2019
  2. WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY - 16 MAC 2019
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  5. Illegal factory owner to be charged over chemical dumping incident
  6. Time to shed royal town’s dirty image
  7. Steps to take to avoid future water woes
  8. Women workers’ rights
  9. 800,000 penerima BSH layak nikmati manfaat Peka B40
  10. Pencemaran berulang di 2 sekolah dikesali