Environmental Protection in Peninsular Malaysia : An Evaluation of Water Pollution Policies

Abstract

The thesis examines the environmental pressure caused by developmental goals using water pollution in peninsular Malaysia as its unit of analysis. In doing so, it explores the trend and magnitude of economic development indicators such as urbanization, population and industrial growth with special reference to manufacturing industry in the country. The study argues that development activity is a public policy demand towards which a government must strive to achieve at all costs. However, the price of developmental goals is always an environmental degradation of natural resources such as water. In the light of this, the study examines the various policy measures, actions and mechanisms put forward by the government to overcome the problem of water pollution in Peninsular Malaysia. The study also indentifies issues associated with some policy mechanisms or instruments used by the government, and administrative constraints are likely to hinder the implementation of such policies and their effectiveness. Methodologically, the study uses a quantitative method of analysis such statistical regression to examine the correlation and magnitude of relationship between the chosen development indicators and water pollution. It equally used the outcome model of analysis and statistical time series method to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented policies in respect to the level of water pollution over the period under review. The findings of the study show that more that 90% of water pollution is caused by development indicators. This contradicts the view of economists who often claim in different Earth Summits that ignorance and habits of people are the main causes of water pollution. With respect to the level of reduction in river pollution, in some years, the policy enforcement actions were very effective by compelling the identified sources of water pollution compiled with policy requirements. However, there were many periods where the level of pollution in rivers became worse. This seems to suggest some weaknesses in the policy instruments used. Another issue includes financial constraints of the small scale industries to install appropriate treatment technologies required of them by the regulatory policies. Specifically, the findings of the study show that the organic pollutants (measured by BOD) from Palm Oil and Rubber industries have been reduced to a certain extent due to vigorous policy enforcement actions and invention of appropriate technologies by research programmes of the government to support these industries.