4 Million Klang Valley Residents Face Risk Of Arsenic Attack

PR Selangor Government can no longer deny that the state might face catastrophic water crisis in the near future as clear evidence shows the issue of lack of water in reservoirs. Previously they tried to belittle the issue by saying that it was Barisan Nasional's political play, but their tones suddenly change and since then, they have been trying to convince rakyat that they have their own strategy to solve the issue. Few of them include implementing the could seeding method and using water from used mines to cover the demand for water supply around Klang Valley. This matter was stated by Selangor State Exco, Dr. Xavier Jayakumar. However, both of the solutions proposed by PR Selangor are simply impractical. This is because the could seeding method cannot guarantee a hundred percent success. Even if it works, it could not solve the main problem which is not the lack of raw water, but treated water. The same thing goes to using mine water as solution because mine waters contain high level of heavy metal other than bacteria and microorganisms which could be hazardous to consumers. The heavy metal which element which brings worry when it comes to mine water would be Arsenic metal (As). Arsenic could cause various illness including liver disease, kidneys and various types of cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) had set the safe amount for inorganic arsenic is at 0.01mg/l. Despite that, a few countries around the world have very high level of arsenic in their water, some goes to more than 200 times the number given by WHO. However, it is true that water from used mines can be treated via a few methods. Few of them include passive treatment method where water from mine would be oxidized before channeling the water to the SAPS reservoir (Successive Alkalinity Producing System). SAPS reservoir contain three layers, first layer contains limestone, followed by organic layer and the third layer (top layer) wastewater layer. Water will be be kept in this reservoir for three days. After that, the wastewater will be channeled to wetland tank before being discharged. Through this method, water pH can be increased to pH6 and element of heavy metal Fe can be reduced from 32ppm to 0.9ppm. Besides that, there is also another treatment known as active treatment facility where the amount of mine water streaming would be high and done in large quantities. Even though there are ways to treat water from used mines, the suggestion to use one of these methods to solve water crisis in Selangor is impractical considering that the cost would be high, not to mention we do not have much time. The cost to develop active treatment plant in Hamtae Korea alone cost USD3 million. Especially when there are a lot of other ways which are a lot easier and cheap and guaranteed safe to solve this issue, which is by implementing the solution which has been proposed by the government which is the Langat 2 Project. That is why, for Selangor government to choose the right method which is impractical to solve this issue, is beginning to raise doubt among rakyat regarding their real motives and credibility. Moreover, it is not wise for a state government to leave rakyat to face risks in getting heavy metal poisoning such as arsenic just for the sake of their ego and refusing to accept plans which was proposed by their opponent, Barisan Nasional government. When the fact is, whenever PR raises environmental issues even when there are no issues at all. For example, despite of the fact that Lynas plant which has been dubbed as safe by international experts, they would go around saying that the plant would endanger the environment and the health of people in Kuantan. It is weird to know that PR raelly fights for the safety and health for Kuantan people but they would let 4 million Selangor rakyat face the risk of catching arsenic poisoning. Besides, PR should have been more aware with the danger of arsenic considering that their General Leader, Anwar Ibrahim did claim that he was given arsenic shot by the government when he was in jail for sodomy charge. Anwar and his family's 'fear' on arsenic is so great that the issue was even raised to the knowledge of international media. For your information, huge amount of arsenic in the body would cause acute attacks such as stomach pain due to damaged digestive system, vomiting, diorhea, thirst, stomach cramps and finally coma, and death. While getting arsenic in the body in small doses for a long term, such as drinking water which contains arsenic, would cause bad breath, excessive sweating, weak muscles, change in skin tone (it gets darker, nerve problems and like what had happened to people of Chile and Bangladesh where they suffered black foot disease and skin cancer. Now, it is clear that Anwar has been lying because he is clearly healthy after being released, he could even 'perform' at ceramah stages and even hotel rooms. With such deep knowledge on arsenic, it is really weird as PR Selangor is not even worried if their rakyat might risk getting infected with this poison. This shows that PR government only values politic more than rakyat. Thus, we would like to suggest that the party should just get rid of the name 'rakyat' because it is clear that they are not following the objective of their coalition.