With each Malaysian discharging an average of 225 litres of domestic wastewater, some 7.4 million cubic metres per day is being pumped into various public and private treatment systems into the watercourses.
Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) chief executive officer Narendran Maniam said this wastewater from 33 million people will have a serious environmental impact if not treated properly.
He said the government-owned company has to ensure its 7,000 sewage treatment plants nationwide meet the effluent standards prescribed by the environment department before it can be discharged into the rivers.
“With the ever increasing cost and low unchanged charges since its inception 27 years ago, IWK has always been in the red,” he told FMT in an interview.
He said the government has to subsidise approximately RM150 million annually (an average for the last five years), something he feels cannot go on forever.
“We have set ourselves a target to break even in two years. Apart from our appeal for tariff revision, we have also come up with three initiatives to add revenue to our coffers.
“They are the wastewater reclamation plants (WRP), capitalising bioproducts from sewerage processes and scheduled desludging from households that are not linked to the nation’s connected sewerage system,” he said.
He said the WRP is their main focus that will supply non-potable grade water through various technologies like ultra filtration and reverse osmosis, something which IWK has just recently embarked on jointly with Pengurusan Air Selangor.
“This non-potable grade water will be Malaysia’s second tap, so to speak. This will be strictly for non-food based industrial use although it could be potable. But Malaysians may not be ready to use this water for drinking.”
He said there is a market for this non-potable grade water, adding that they are already supplying to one such manufacturer in Selangor.
“We have entered into a venture with Air Selangor which will supply the treated water for non-potable use. They will be responsible for laying the pipes and the whole network as they are licensed by the National Water Services Commission for this purpose,” he said.
Currently, Narendran added, the joint venture with Air Selangor via a special purpose vehicle company, Central Water Reclamation Sdn Bhd will earn a small but significant starting revenue for its water reclamation project.
However, he said this was only a stepping stone to expand its operations to implement large scale water reclamation facilities in the country.
“Besides Air Selangor, IWK has also started discussions with Syarikat Air Melaka Bhd and other water operators,” he said.
He said the growing use of recycled wastewater for irrigation, landscaping, industry and toilet flushing is a good way to conserve the fresh water resources, which is often faced with unscheduled disruptions and hit by climate changes.
Narendran said that while the government was strengthening the water catchment areas by building more reservoirs, dams and off river storages, IWK is doing its bit by freeing up the water used by industries for domestic use.
He said the government has set a target of producing 1.5 billion litres per day of reclaimed water in 10 years’ time, with IWK working hard towards achieving this.
Cashing in on bio-solid waste
As for bioproducts, he said IWK produces 120,000 tonnes of bio-solid in a year and this will be used as agents for farming, soil reconstructions and other industrial processes, adding that this will be accomplished under the Green Technology Master Plan by 2030.
“Our ‘Black Soldier Fly Larvae’ project involves sludge being fed to a special larvae, which converts the sludge into protein. The larvae are then used as animal feed, which will be a major revenue earner. A French company is already doing it in Tanjung Malim,” said Narendran.
“This means not only can we obtain revenue from this, we can also save approximately RM10 million in annual fees that we pay to landfill operators to accept our sludge.”