Worrying developments in water and health sectors

post by hasri hamzah

Concern is growing that private sector interests will soon dominate the country’s water and health care sectors and burden the public — despite official assurances that these sectors will not be privatised.

Concern is growing that private sector interests will soon dominate the country’s water and health care sectors and burden the public — despite official assurances that these sectors will not be privatised.

The government is revamping the way these two sectors are managed and financed. And the coming months will be crucial as blueprints and enabling laws are formulated.

Last June, the minister for water, Lim Keng Yaik, said the government had made a U-turn and decided that total privatisation was not suitable for Malaysia, “so we have cut out the word ‘privatisation’ ”.

Likewise, top Health Ministry officials repeatedly assured the public that there would be no privatisation of the proposed national health care financing mechanism, which would allow the government to collect health insurance premiums from the public.

The government may be avoiding the term ‘privatisation’, but concerned Malaysians are worried that the end results of its convoluted plans may be similar.

Two draft bills — the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) bill and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN in Malay) bill — are expected to come into force later this year.

Water will be brought under federal control (away from state control) and most likely privatised after that. Tariffs are likely to rise significantly. Private water supply operators will no longer be supervised by the respective state authorities. Instead, SPAN will monitor the operators after renegotiating their existing concession agreements.

A new national water assets holding company (WAHCO) will be set up to buy up all existing water infrastructure. WAHCO, to be owned by the Finance Ministry, will raise low-interest funds to finance the acquisition and building of new infrastructure, which will then be leased to state-owned or private operators.

Already, Johor, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have privatised their water supply management. Another four states — Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang and Perak — have indicated they are going ahead with water privatisation. The remaining states will be required to “corporatise” their respective water authorities.

In the case of health, several moves since December 2004 to get patients to pay more for services clearly reveal the government’s ‘neo-liberal’ mindset. These include plans to privatise government hospital dispensaries and to make foreigners, including migrant workers, pay much higher ‘first-class’ rates at government hospitals. The government also announced a federal budget strategy to put greater focus on ‘health tourism’.

More recently, the authorities have given the green light for specialists to provide ‘private treatment’ at government hospitals to supplement their relatively low incomes — instead of increasing health budget allocations so that government doctors can be paid more.

There is certainly a lack of transparency. In health care, the authorities are believed to have short-listed consultants who will come up with a detailed blueprint for the national health care financing mechanism. Unfortunately, the Economic Planning Unit says it cannot release the terms of reference for the consultants because it is “confidential”.

This lack of transparency has done little to allay the fears of the Coalition Against Health Care Privatisation (CAHP). If the authorities can be so lacking in transparency over the terms of reference, what more when it comes to how the money in the health fund is eventually spent.

As for water, the public remains in the dark over the concession agreements with private water operators. The Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) is also concerned about the private operators' requests for water tariff hikes based on their claims of successful reductions of leakages (non-revenue water or NRW) — achieved by replacing old pipes. These requests could end up being approved without thorough independent verification of the claimed NRW reduction.

In both water and health care, civil society groups are concerned about how the huge amounts of funds to be raised will be spent. The health fund is expected to handle RM 13 billion annually while WAHCO will handle billions more - and both could turn out to be potential goldmines for corporate players.

Which of the so-called “stakeholders” — corporate players or the public — will benefit the most? At a meeting with senior Health Ministry officials, CAHP representatives argued that the term ‘stakeholders’ itself misrepresents the situation as not all stakeholders are equal. “The needs of the one stakeholder — the people - should be the main determinant of any future health scheme,” they said.

Adequate civil society oversight of SPAN and the national health fund will therefore be vital.

The Health Ministry said that it will closely monitor the proposed National Health Financing Authority, which will manage the national health fund. This authority “will function as a non-profit organisation and will not be privatised,” Health Ministry director-general Ismail Merican told CAHP in a letter.

But this authority may outsource a range of services and become just a paymaster for the national health fund — collecting premiums from the public and making payments out of the fund to the various service providers, including private hospitals. The question is: will there be open tenders for contracts of services and other payments out of the fund? Who will benefit most?

As for water, some have observed that it is ironic that private water operators would benefit from the low-interest funds raised by state-owned WAHCO. Why couldn't the government have raised such low-cost funds for the state water authorities in the first place, asks CAWP. The terms of the lease between WAHCO and the private operators will now be crucial in determining whether the interests of the public are protected.

We need to be vigilant because the track record of privatisation in Malaysia has been dismal. What has happened in the past is that profits are often privatised while losses are socialised (borne by the public).

Religious Groups, NGOs Hold Gathering On Water Conservation

post by Susanne Chi

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Bernama) -- Religious groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in their efforts to instill greater awareness among the public on the importance of conserving water, will be holding a discussion on the subject at Masjid Negara here on Aug 4.

The gathering will deliberate the different religious views on human rights to water and is themed "United for Water: Religions Speak on the Rights to Water" and will specifically refer to the United Nations's General Comment No 15.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud at a press conference on it here Wednesday, said: "The event hopes to raise awareness among Malaysians to conserve water and to respect and protect human rights to the precious resource."

The event is jointly organised by various organisations including Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia (BMSM), Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS), Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) and MTUC.

International Movement for a Just World (Just) president Dr Chandra Muzaffar will deliver the keynote address while papers will be presented by other speakers including the general-secretary of CCM, Rev Dr. Hermen Shastri and the president of Buddhist Maha Vihara, Sarath W. Surendre.

Those interested in participating in it can e-mail their details to monitoring.globalisation@gmail.com or call Simon Lee at 012-6332349.

NEWS FROM UEM...

from Wee Beng Wah

Kampung Tiroi, Labu, Negeri Sembilan - 4 Oct, 2007

Kualiti Alam today completed its task of removing 174 drums of illegal dumped waste at Kampung Tiroi, about 6km from Seremban to the Integrated Scheduled Waste Management Centre in Bukit Nanas for storage. The drums packed into 58 jumbo bags were kept in a warehouse at WMC as court evidence for the Department of Environment.

Earlier the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Dato S. Sothinathan visited the site located near the Tiroi Komuter Train Station with Dato Hajjah Rosnani Ibrahim, the Director of Department of Environment, and Negeri Sembilan State Exco for Environment, Dato Peter Lai.

From the right: Dato S. Sothinathan, Dato Peter Lai, Dato Hajjah Rosnani Ibrahim, Puan Rahani Hussin, Negeri Sembilan State DOE Director and DOE Officer inspecting the site.

An impromptu media conference at the site.


Some of the drum waste recovered from the illegal dump

Eutrophication

Post By Voon Chen Li

Eutrophication is a condition in an aquatic ecosystem where high nutrient concentrations stimulate blooms of algae (e.g., phytoplankton). The main cause of eutrophication is excess nitrogen run-off from farm fertilizers, sewage and industrial pollutants. Eutrophication reduces water clarity and depletes oxygen. Reduced water clarity can starve sea grasses and algae that live in corals from light, reducing their growth or killing them. While wind and waves aerate surface waters, the pycnocline—a layer of rapid change in water temperature and density—acts as a barrier to oxygen exchange in bottom waters.

Excess phytoplankton reduces water clarity and consumes oxygen. Phytoplankton need nutrients as well as the energy from the sun to survive but too many nutrients can cause algae blooms and, in turn, red tides (dying phytoplankton). In some regions (particularly near major rivers), excess nutrients can be added to the coastal zone as a result of fertilizer runoff, sewage, animal feedlot runoff, or air pollution. During the bloom, the phytoplankton consume nutrients and oxygen which, in turn, causes a decrease in the amount of dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus in the water body. As the nutrients become depleted, the algae can no longer survive. The dead phytoplankton sink to the bottom of the water column where they are consumed by decomposers. Since these decomposers require oxygen to break down the algae, dissolved oxygen levels will decrease during this time period. Resulting low oxygen levels can be detrimental to fish health; if dissolved oxygen drops to below 2 mg/l, mass fish kills can result. This is known as hypoxia. The areas in which hypoxia has occurred are known as 'Dead Zones.' Dead zones have been a factor in the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay on the U.S. east coast, and are now spreading to other bodies of water, including the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, Gulf of Thailand and Yellow Sea. There are now nearly 150 dead zones around the globe-- double the number in 1990, with some extending 27,000 square miles (United Nations Environment Programme, 2003). The article states that "Unless urgent action is taken to tackle the sources of the problem, it is likely to escalate rapidly."

Arsenic in Drinking Water Said to Be Rising Risk

Post By Voon Chen Li

Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to die from arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, according to research presented at the annual Royal Geographical Society.

By REUTERS
Published: August 30, 2007

LONDON, Aug. 29 (Reuters) — Naturally occurring arsenic in drinking water poses a growing global health risk as large numbers of people unknowingly consume unsafe levels, researchers said on Wednesday.
The problem is bigger than scientists had thought, and it affects nearly 140 million people in more than 70 countries, according to new research presented at the annual Royal Geographical Society meeting in London.
Arsenic can cause lung disease and cancers, even long after people stop drinking contaminated water, said Peter Ravenscroft, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.
“What is new is, the extent of arsenic pollution is much bigger than people realized,” Mr. Ravenscroft said in a telephone interview.
“There is a very important connection between arsenic in water and arsenic in food, especially where people grow irrigated crops.”
World Health Organization guidelines set a safe limit of 10 parts per billion of arsenic in water supplies, but tens of millions of people in the world drink unsafe water above that level, researchers said.
At present, Bangladesh has been affected the most. There, hundreds of thousands of people are likely to die from arsenic poisoning, the researchers said.
Arsenic has also been found in the water in developed countries, and industrial activities like mining can also lead to contamination.
Rising awareness has led to increased testing, which has revealed more widespread arsenic in drinking water, but other researchers said that even more must be done to address the problem.
“Most countries have some water sources with dangerous levels of arsenic, but only now are we beginning to recognize the magnitude of the problem,” Allan Smith, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and an adviser to the World Health Organization on arsenic, said in a statement.

The City- The Big Spill

Post By Voon Chen Li

Published: September 30, 2007

The Exxon Valdez disaster is certainly the most notorious oil spill in the United States — a single, terrible accident that poured 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound 1989, causing grievous damage to Alaska’s waters and beyond. But it is not the largest. In terms of volume it cannot match the steady seepage of oil into Newtown Creek, the polluted waterway that separates Brooklyn from Queens.
The Newtown Creek spill has not received anywhere near the response that followed the Valdez incident. The cleanup has been haphazard and ineffective, hampered by weak enforcement, and residents have been left in the dark about potential health effects.
A report this month from the Environmental Protection Agency suggested that the Newtown spill may be twice as large as first believed — some 30 million gallons, nearly three times the size of the Alaska spill. It has polluted the 4-mile strip of waterway and some 55 residential and commercial acres around it, gathering in subsurface reservoirs, mixing with groundwater, creating toxic vapors and and seeping, slowly but inexorably, into the creek. One major concern is the reported leakage of chemical vapor into homes.
The report was welcome, but far too long in coming. And it did not go far enough. Representatives Nydia Velazquez and Anthony Weiner, two members of Congress whose districts are affected, and who fought for the study, were understandably disappointed with the results. Both lawmakers are studying ways to speed the cleanup and assess health risks.
The spill is believed to have originated 57 years ago, when oil leaked from refinery tanks owned by Standard Oil, a corporate predecessor to Exxon Mobil. It went unnoticed until a Coast Guard helicopter noticed a plume, which led to the discovery of an huge pool of oil at the creek’s bottom.
Last month, the state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, and warned several other companies they are also under scrutiny. Riverkeeper, an environmental group, filed its own lawsuit in 2004. Although ExxonMobil entered into a cleanup agreement with the State Department of Enviromental Conservation in 1990, the department has not been aggressive in enforcing its e terms. .
Given the new evidence, the D.E.C. should acknowledge that the deal has been a bad one for the state and for the more than 500 residents and businesses near the creek and really start pushing the companies. Having acknowledged the severity of the problem, the the federal government must also take a more active role. At Newtown Creek, there’s plenty of work for everyone — beginning with the polluters.

Water

Post by Voon Chen Li

Water Pollution is the contamination of any body of water or water supply, such as rivers and streams, lakes, underground water, or oceans by substances harmful to plants and animals. Water is necessary to life on earth. All organisms contain water and require that water to be relatively pure. Plants and animals cannot survive if their water contains toxic chemicals or harmful microorganisms. Water pollution can kill large numbers of fish, birds, and other animals, in some cases killing all members of a species in an affected area.


Major Types of Pollutants include but are not limited to chemical, biological, or physical materials that degrade water quality.



Hazardous wastes are chemical wastes that are either poisonous, capable of producing explosive or toxic gases, highly corrosive, or flammable. When improperly treated or stored, hazardous wastes can pollute water supplies. In 1969, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cuyahoga River was so polluted with hazardous wastes that it actually caught fire. Hazardous wastes not properly disposed of or treated can get into the environment and reach toxic levels as organisms eat one another.



Oil and chemicals derived from oil are used for fuel, lubrication, plastics manufacturing, and many commercial and residential use. Petroleum products usually find their way into the water by means of accidental spills from ships, tanker trucks, leaking pipelines or leaking underground storage tanks. Most petroleum products are toxic to people, plants and animals, feathers and fur can be damaged by oil often causing death. Spilled oil may also contain other harmful substances, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).



Herbicides and Pesticides are chemicals used to kill unwanted plants and animals. While these chemicals are typically used in agriculture or in the suburban back yard, they can end up in lakes, streams and ground water sources because of misuse or overuse. Carried by rainwater runoff, these chemicals can quickly cause eradication of aquatic plants and animals as well as illness in people.



Animals at the top of the food chain may be the first indicator that the water is polluted. Take for example a study done on DDT levels in Ospreys (a family of fish-eating birds). DDT levels were found to be 10 to 50 times higher than in the fish that they ate, 600 times the level in the plankton that the fish ate, and 10 million times higher than in the water.
Over 14 million Americans drink water contaminated with various pesticides, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 10% of wells contain pesticides in varying levels. Nitrates, a pollutant



LEARN MOREoften derived from fertilizer runoff, can cause methemoglobinemia in infants, a potentially lethal form of anemia that is also called blue baby syndrome.



Sediment or soil particles carried to a stream bed, lake, or ocean, can also be a pollutant when present in large enough amounts. Soil erosion is the typical reason for this and can be produced by many things. The removal of trees near waterways is a major contributor to erosion.
The Earth's topsoils can also find their way into streams by means of heavy rain runoff and floods in or near croplands, strip mines and roads. This high level of sediment and organic matter can damage a stream or lake by introducing too much nutrient matter which can lead to eutrophication (nutrient rich and oxygen poor).



Infectious Organisms The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have estimated that about 900,000 people get sick annually in the United States because of organisms in their drinking water, since about 900 of those people may die, the problem is serious. Some organisms occur in nature and are only considered pollutants when found in drinking water. One such parasite is Cryptosporidium parvum, which caused more than 400,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in Milwaukee in 1993 when it contaminated the drinking water supply.

Cameron Highlands drinking water contaminated - Water pollution

Post by : Chui Chui Goh

Water Pollution - Of all natural resources, water is the most severely threatened by pollution. The Department of Environment (DOE), Malaysia reports the most serious water polluting industry in terms of the number of point sources. In this context, food processing is the most polluting industry for water. The deterioration of water quality follows a five-year trend (1986-1991). The trend indicates that the number of rivers in the slightly polluted and very polluted categories is tending to increase while the number of rivers in the clean category is tending to decrease. Water pollution in Malaysia is measured in terms of BOD caused by organic pollution, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N) emitted in the form of sewage and animal waste or fecal coliforms), suspended solids for soil erosion and sedimentation. Heavy metals and nutrients are also measured. The DOE no longer gives information on the most important polluters of water by pollution load. Instead, information is presented according to the number of polluters. Malaysian rivers are heavily polluted with mean BOD levels nearly six times the international standard. Residential sewage accounts for nearly 80 percent of BOD-related water pollution, followed by agriculture and industry. Inadequate sewerage system is the main cause of water pollution.

The principal source of fecal coliforms is human waste, while concentrated industrial wastewater and agricultural run-off of fertilizer and chemicals into surface water affect levels of dissolved oxygen in water. The reduction of dissolved oxygen effects mainly plant life and fish resulting in destruction of aquatic life and the natural ecology of the rivers. Forest harvesting and agricultural and urban development have resulted in the pollution of most river systems, affected ecological dynamics and disrupted natural food chains. In 1991, 40.5% of the 2,292 industries in Malaysia, identified as major sources of water pollutants, were food and beverage industries. 14.1% were rubber producing and 11.8% were chemical producing industries. In terms of organic water pollution, human and animal wastes largely from piggeries and agro-based industries are the primary sources. The heavily industrialized Peninsular states that are most affected by these pollution sources are Selangor, Johor, Penang and Perak. Although the supply of clean water is high, inadequate sewerage and drainage systems now threaten water quality.

Further clearing of forested land, tin mining and effluent discharges from industries, tin mining, logging, use of weedicides, insecticides, latex processing plants and manufacturing industries are polluting surface water sources. Treatment of raw water from surface water sources for human consumption and for industrial use has become more complex because of water pollution.

M'sians Use Four Times More Water Than Necessary, Says Expert

post by Susanne Chi

Dr K. Kalithasan of the Global Environment Centre (GEC) said Malaysians were using between 184 and 500 litres daily.

Much of the water is wasted for "businesses" in the toilet and bathroom, he told reporters after presenting a talk at a workshop on water conservation for 70 students, here.

Kalithasan said the daily water usage per Malaysian was about 184 litres but in bigger towns and cities the usage could reach as high as 300 to 500 litres.

He said Malaysians were generally living in a comfort zone where water scarcity was still not a huge issue.

"We only appreciate it (water) when crises arise," he said.

The two-year national water conservation campaign, which started in July last year, is jointly organised by the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry, the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) and GEC.

On the role of the public in river conservation efforts, Kalithasan said the government should transfer the responsiblity and let the general public hold ownership of such projects if it is serious about the efforts yielding positive results in the long run.

He said the government was now holding the responsibility of river conservation and the participation from the grassroots in the effort was too scarce and not consistent.

He said many of such projects failed because the allocated money was largely spent on advertisements rather than proactive action that involved people at the grassroots level.

"When the community doesn't hold the ownership, it doesn't feel the need to be responsible for the rivers. Ideally, such projects should be focused on the grassroots level where the community is provided with some resources to launch their campaigns," he said.

RM7m to put love back into rivers

post by Susanne Chi

RM7m to put love back into rivers

JOHOR BARU: The failed Love Our Rivers campaign has been re-branded as a programme to preserve the riverine environment.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the ministry would spend RM7 million on the campaign to be launched in June by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"The cabinet has agreed to give state assemblymen and MPs from ‘black areas’ a RM10,000 allocation under the campaign.

"They will use the money to run environmental awareness programmes to change the mindset of people living around polluted rivers."

Azmi was speaking after receiving RM100,000 for Johor flood victims from the Surveyors’ Board of Peninsular Malaysia.
"The Love Our Rivers campaign has been misconstrued by people as just landscaping river banks.

"They didn’t realise that the campaign was also aimed at keeping rivers free from pollution and rubbish."

Asked if the new campaign would suffer the same fate as the earlier campaign, he said: "I don’t think so. I think the people are now ready to accept their responsibility."

The Love Our Rivers campaign was launched in 1993.

Azmi said the failure of the campaign was evident in the increase in river pollution with 17 rivers having water that was unsafe for humans to even touch.

"It will take RM2 billion to rehabilitate each of these polluted rivers."

Asked if the ministry had identified the major polluter of rivers, Azmi said improperly treated sewage effluent was to blame for the pollution.

"Studies have shown that 91 per cent of sewage treatment plants in the country are run inefficiently."