The watershed approach to water pollution studies in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

As in most tropical developing countries, water pollution problems exist in Peninsular Malaysia. Being aware of the need to control water quality in order to protect the legitimate uses of this resource, the Malaysian Government has announced a budget for base-line studies programme. This is necessary as the degree and extent of water pollution has not been thoroughly measured or evaluated. Efforts should be made to view problems in a broad sense rather than to focus on particular or localized difficulties and also to consider the effects of decisions and operations to wide planning areas rather than to isolated sites. In this respect, river basins (or watersheds) seem to be the most appropriate geographical units for the purpose. Besides, a watershed offers a natural and convenient unit for ecological analyses. his approach entails an integrated study of all decision variables pertinent to the resource supply and demand. When carefully designed and carried out, the programme should yield useful information. Such information will in future provide a meaningful reference against which to draw up the necessary water quality criteria for the development of realistic water quality standards.