I'm refer to the letter Time for IWK's 'fat' management to go on a diet . I am glad that he raised something which I frequently tell my students about - that in the US, consumers get a monthly report of their water quality and we don't.

Our water supply operators do not even bother to tell us if our water is 'suddenly' contaminated with ammonia from the landfill in Selangor (funny, they are just concerned about ammonia, what about other refractory carcinogenic compounds from the landfill?) or with erosion/earthworks in Perak.

By the way, there are no effluent limits for ammonia stated in our laws, hence it is not the landfill operators fault if there is a leak. Landfill operators more often than not have a licence to pollute! I would love to know the carcinogenic THM (trihalomethane) levels in my tap water.

On the sewerage treatment side, I agree 100% with Concerned Citizen that IWK should report to their consumers what we pay for - the cleaning up of the sewage. Hence, we should get the laboratory analysis reports. However, Concerned Citizen should also be aware that IWK is only required by the DOE to monitor its effluent levels once in every three months.

The law requires them to do just that. Whatever happens within those three months, I don't think anyone in IWK cares. Ask one operator how often he visits his sewage treatment plant. Once a week? Taking care of those bacteria (used in sewage treatment plants) is like taking care of your own baby. What are the expertise of these operators?

Unlike in the US (yes, it's the US again) all wastewater and water treatment plants conduct their sampling daily. They also have to keep these daily records as their environment authority may pay them a visit anytime unannounced. In Malaysia, one DOE officer whom I know is in charge of 800 factories. How does he monitor these industries, I just wonder.

In Malaysia, we do not even disinfect our wastewater prior to discharge. You know why? Because we don't have a limit on Coliform or E Coli in our laws. Now, how can you expect our streams to be not contaminated with bacteria/viruses? Imagine watching kids playing in streams contaminated with bacteria/viruses on my way to Banting.

Our effluent treatment standards, Standard A or B should apply to all rivers and streams, no matter if the streams are of low flow or high flow. Hence, even the small streams will be contaminated with Standard A discharge. In the US (yes, US again), they are now implementing TMDL (total maximum discharge load) to ensure the streams are kept clean to support fishes and aquatic life.

Our rivers are polluted and will remain polluted till we change our laws. Even if the public stops their dirty habit of dumping their wastes into the rivers, the rivers will still be polluted with unlicenced discharges, IWK discharges, industrial discharges and those who are 'licenced' to contaminate with their so-called 'contravention' discharge.

It just amazes me how the government could allows such 'contravention laws' especially for landfill operators who are never serious about treating their toxic leachate (they just aerate it with a ponding system and discharge earning millions in their garbage collection).

No wonder Malaysian's cancer rate is 4:1!