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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Excess Ammonia? More like Hydrogen Sulphide!



Hah. Akhirnya hilanglah bau yang menghantui kami di Selangor dan KL. Tapi, kenapa Kerajaan Selangor tak mengeluarkan Kenyataan Akhbar dari awal, supaya tidak dimaki, dikecam, dikutuk dan tidak dilemparkan dengan tohmahan dan tuduhan yang bukan bukan?


Residents happy water no longer smells bad

KUALA LUMPUR: The stench in the water has diminished and some residents are calling for a rebate for the smelly water.

On Monday, readers of The Star complained that they could not drink, wash or cook with the water that flowed from their household taps because of a foul odour emitting from it.

Some went as far as saying that the water smelled of faeces.

But the Selangor state government said the water was safe to drink and was not contaminated.

Read more ....



UPDATE:

AMMONIA IN THE WATER??

The Malay Mail reported this afternoon that:

An official from Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd gave this explanation to State Multimedia, Environment and New Village Development Permanent Committee chairman, Datuk Ch'ng Toh Eng, yesterday.

Ch’ng was informed that the ammonia reading at the three phases of the scheme stood at 1.2 parts per million (ppm), which is below the normal reading of 1.5ppm.

"I was told that the ammonia level in Sungai Selangor was very high, recording a reading of more than 9ppm on Feb 25. However, it has come down to a safe level."

Ch’ng said he was told that chlorine had to be added to reduce the ammonia content.

"However, the mixture of the two elements created the foul stench," he said.

Ch’ng said the smell would disappear in the next few days. "I have asked the Department of Environment to investigate the reason for the excessive ammonia in the river," he said.

Ch’ng said the water was safe for drinking.

"The health department has given the assurance that the water is drinkable and poses no threat to health," he said.

It was reported in The Malay Mail yesterday that thousands of Klang Valley households had received stinking water from their taps since last Saturday.

Now, let us try to understand the report:

  1. Normal reading of ammonia in water should be 1.5 parts per million (ppm);
  2. Recorded level (yesterday?) was 1.2 ppm. Meaning that this is below the maximum level allowed; BUT
  3. On Feb 25, the recorded level was 9 ppm.
How did the ammonia get into the water? They will investigate, according to Dato Ch'ng.

But according to a journalist friend,
"Hari tu hujan lebat bang, jadi paras air sungai naik dan telah melimpah ke dalam takungan air di loji. Dan bang, kebetulan ada kilang yang mengambil kesempatan dari hujan yang lebat itu telah membuang sisa toksid kilang yang mengandungi ammonia ke dalam sungai."
And now this answers the question of how the excess ammonia got landed in the water. But why tell us of excess ammonia in the water. Is ammonia used in the process of filtering water? Not that we know of. Chlorine, definetely.

But to quote Dato Ch'ng, ""The health department has given the assurance that the water is drinkable and poses no threat to health."

It might be OK with you Dato. I'm not.


13 comments:

Bergen said...

I don't know who or what to believe, sir. This whole affair is beginning to play out just like living in a country like Russia where everything is confidential and you can get arrested for asking simple questions.

We ain't no third world, man. Selangor Maju!

Some areas may experience water cut because they need to close the plant at Kuala Kubu Baru for cleaning up operation.

Store water, man.

dith said...

Safe to drink and not contaminated? !! Once the water smells, there must be contamination!

Bergen is right. We might be a province of Russia after all! hehe

Sayuti said...

belilah air botol.

:D

Anonymous said...

I don't know how bad the water was over there, but to me this is just the same old thing. semua ok, everything's ok, don't worry. Harga minyak naik pun ok, because according to them it's all for the good of the rakyat.

Bergen said...

I'd vote Kerabat as our Menteri Hal Ehwal Air anytime. You've got my support, mate!

Ku Keng said...

Berg: Maju dengan rahsia. Why the sudden need to have a complete clean-up of KKB plant? Only Dato Ch'ng knows.

Puan Dr.:Cos effects are slow and long-term in nature. By that parameter it is safe.

Sayuti: You wanna to know how much it costs. It cost me RM15 for a small bottle of mineral water at Nikko just two days ago.

Crimson:Bila semua OK maka tak OKlah ia.

NBB:Basikal pun mahal ooi.

Kerabat: Memang betul. Cakap tak serupa bikin. Gua tak caya sama lu.

Berg:Second. Nice recollection of Dungun you are compiling. I was there in early 60s. But for just a while. Had cousins in Bkt. Besi, Tanah Lot and Pdg Jambu.

Mama Pongkey said...

Ni semua spin by politicians. Nice to see that in this regard, Msia is not too behind the UK!

Ikelah said...

We are angry but nobody is to be blamed but us. each person complaining about the contaminated water just think for once. we choose to get such treatment. why? because we always believed with the 'system'. No mater what happened, no matter how many times blunders were repeated in different forms, by the end of the day we still choose the 'system'. each of us is a 'politician' although we may not belong to any party. we have our own views of how a country should be run. we hate corrupted politicians or the administrators. we despise the wrong-doings in the awarding and running of government projects and yet we are very forgiving.

i just believe, the anger for giving us contaminated water or flash flood, MMRII, levelling the hills or cutting the trees or the 30 sen rise will only last for a few months or the most for a year. we are very patriotic. i do believe almost all malaysians are patriotic for the sake of the nation in their own way. we will sacrifice everything if 'certain condition' will jeopadize the nation's sovereignty. we will succumb if are told that if we do not act accordingly, foreign power will control us. Actually, we are more patriotic than the political leaders, the management proxy of certain figures, government administrators etc.

i am sorry if you think its a bit harsh. its just my viewpoint.

Bergen said...

The system we have now may not be the best but what choice do we have? Our second choice, if their actions so far is anything to go by, isn't any better, perhaps worse at managing a machinery that has been in place since we know how to spell the word election. PAS had a chance to prove something with Terengganu but they managed it like a child, turning the whole things upside down, not even capable of keeping a city like Dungun clean.

It's a corrupted system, but so far it works. Some people got rich, some people got poor but no one is starving, except for those extreme poverty cases TV3 is fond of highlighting in BersamaMu or something. This is not Singapore but neither this is the Philippines, eventhough Thailand is well on the road to being more transparent.

We need a good second choice. But so far the second choice has no idea how to manage anything other than talk in ideological terms instead of being practical about an issue.

Just my viewpoint, sir. Ooops, sorry to use your comment box to do this. I hope you don't mind.

Ku Keng said...

iKelah & Bergen: Remember 'Amr Khaled?

Sayuti said...

ish Tuan Keng, beli kat Nikko buat aper? belilah di kedai Mesra.

Mama Pongkey said...

:) We were happy enough not paying 'cukai pintu' while PAS was in power. When BN came back, they tried to serve backdated bills for the period when Tganu was under PAS. Hehehe the cheek of it all! And the water supply was simply amazing: clean, efficient and dirt cheap, under Syarikat Air Terengganu.

Regardless, I can see why the Terengganu people for voted back BN. Life was already difficult enough as it were, without being cut off from the petroleum royalty. Wang ihsan? Spent on gleaming, ornate gates for schools, when right next door is a house almost falling to pieces. Sad indeed. I think it's great that although Terengganu is generally poor, but the people are brave enough to switch governments. Perhaps they are the ones who truly realise the value of their vote, unlike the rest of us. Perhaps they are the ones who are 'less forgiving' when their rights are trampled upon.

What worries me a bit is that although the Malay psyche is very tolerant of their leaders, there are many instances where the pent-up anger finally explodes and the ensuing release results in the toppling of said leader. I think we shouldn't wait till that happens.

Sayuti:
Kami pelanggan Mesra yang Setia!

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