The world is a wonderful place for us to live in. Some agree with this statement. Some strongly disagree. The fact is it is awesome now, but it was the best some time ago

It’s so hot now, but thank goodness we have air-conditioning.

It was way much better last time when it was a few degrees lower when air-conditioning was considered as ‘rich people’s toys’.

“Global warming seems to be at it’s peak nowadays”. That’s what most of us say without considering what contributed towards it.

We use to have clean water, clean air and a colder environment here in Malaysia some time ago. We can’t just make things worse as the clock ticks.

Here in Malaysia, we just have too many ‘convenient’ ways of getting things done. We need to do things so fast that an observer could label us as uncivilised. Throwing rubbish everywhere including the river?

Clean water = better health conditions

To get clean water, we need to have clean rivers (even though there are water treatment plants, doesn’t mean that we can dump everything into the river). To have cleaner rivers, we must use some common sense! Any river in Malaysia would tell us that there’s some sort of pollution.

In industries, cost is everything. When waste water is being treated, they just tend to achieve the “minimum requirement” for the water discharged to the main drain. Why? Cost! Thousands of cubic metres of water is being discharged by industries every day (millions maybe).

If some initiative and love towards nature is practised, a better quality of water could be discharged promoting better health for the fishes and us, too. Remember, the water that comes out of the tap is the water that has been treated. Even if one is a vegetarian, the water that is used to water the plants (even in houses) has some pollutants and is absorbed by the plants and trees which is finally consumed.

It’s easy to throw household rubbish into the river. But what happens next? River polluted, fishes die, low water quality even for drinking purposes and we die fast. The Klang River has been crying for so long that it’s tears has gone dry!

Here are a few things that we can do (besides the mega oil spillage in the ocean)

1. Never throw rubbish into the river (including those rubbish from our body).

2. Key persons in industries to not just meet the ‘minimum requirement’ but to go a bit more than that by spending a little bit more to preserve nature.

3. Prevent throwing cigarette butts or other rubbish into the drain (drain to river to treatment plant to water taps to drinking purpose).

4. When you are a car enthusiast and prefer to do-it-yourself (DIY), don’t simply pour the old engine oil into the drain after servicing.

5. Don’t litter even on roads because when it rains, rubbish on roads to drain to river to treatment plant to water taps to drinking purpose.

Clean air = better everything

I’m more than afraid to promote public transport as it might not be so convenient to many of us. Again, in industries, don’t just practise ‘meet the authority’s minimum requirement’ but go beyond that by understanding what the consequences are.

Some sources of air pollution and what to do about it

1. Open burning - even though they say that it prevents mosquito bites at night, just bury the leaves and other organic stuff that’s unwanted after a gardening session.

2. Vehicle emissions -

i. Turn off the engine when waiting;

ii. Don’t speed (more combustion à more emission à more pollution);

iii. Try car-pooling when going out with friends/family;

iv. Walk if possible - at least there’s some calories burnt. Make sure it’s safe;

v. Use public transport when not in a hurry;

vi. Get your car done when there’s something wrong (makan minyak hitam means the engine oil is being burnt in the combustion chamber and emitting more toxic gases).

3. Smoking - reduce or better still, quit

Clean land prevents eye irritation

We tend to go to beautiful places to spend our holidays. Why? To see and experience something nice, of course! Littering is one of the most common undetected deed in us. Our hands just throw simply anything when we are outside of our house.

Why not do this at home? Throw away chocolate wrappers in front of the TV, leave the empty cans on the table, spit on the floor, let your pets do their business in the kitchen, throw cigarette butts everywhere and keep walking. We don’t do that because we live there and we own the place. And that’s the reason the authorities do the cleaning. Because they have the sense of ownership!

If we have one day of ‘no littering at public places’, we will be confused if we are here in Malaysia or in Singapore. If hefty fines have to be imposed all the times, then we won’t live like humans. We will keep thinking about the fines for whatever we tend to do.

The solution for this, in my opinion is, just throw inside the rubbish bin or don’t throw at all. Recycle when possible. We have to follow the Japanese way on being discipline and following the rules.

In one sentence, I would simplify the above into ‘treat nature, environment and public places the same as you would your home’.