High-tech water solutions

Membrane tech: At a water desalination plant, water is pushed down rows of multilayered plastic membranes and through reverse osmosis, emerges after 90 minutes as potable water. — Filepic/TNS

THE Covid-19 pandemic has rattled the health systems of countries globally. Malaysia, however, has been judged to have a robust system by the World Health Organisation, on the basis of how we have managed the crisis so far. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our water management system.

Water pollution continues to recur, disrupting the nation’s water supply. The latest incident is, of course, the odour pollution of Sungai Selangor that disrupted supply to millions in the Klang Valley last week. The culprit concerned was a factory that had apparently not learned from an earlier mistake, releasing pollutants for the second time in the space of a few months. Our track record in caring for the environment is not something we can be proud of. There are just too many such environmental crimes occurring. But we can take solace in the fact that awareness is growing, as demonstrated by the anger expressed in social media over the latest incident.