Domestic households and industrial and agricultural activities produce sewage/wastewater that can cause pollution of many lakes and rivers. In 1997, about 4,932 factories were identified as sources of river water pollution. By industry type, the polluters included 966 food and beverage manufacturing factories (20%), 559 paper factories (11%), and 419 electrical and electronics plants (8%). The breakdown by state shows that Selangor had the highest number of industrial sources of pollution (1,668 factories), followed by Johor (945) and Negeri Sembilan (371). In terms of individual rivers, the basin of the Klang River which flows through Selangor had the highest number of industrial pollution sources.
While sewerage in Malaysia was handled by the sewerage services such as Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd to deal with household wastewater which is a leading source of pollution. In Malaysia, since 2017 there is about 6,966 sewage treatment plants (IWK, 2019).
Based on the statement above, write an essay on the following criteria:
a) Explain the sewage/wastewater treatment processes in detail with suitable illustrations.
b) Discuss the issues/challenges for the effective implementation of wastewater treatment to achieve a clean river in Malaysia.
c) Describe the legislation system related to wastewater effluent in Malaysia. Is our current legislative system able to protect the environmental risk occurring such as water pollution? Explain why.