The Final Result. Good work guys!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Chinese Air Pollution: Deadliest in World
China,the world's fastest growing economy, has earned another startling superlative: the highest annual incidence of premature deaths triggered by air pollution in the world, according to a new study.
A World Health Organization (WHO) report estimates that diseases triggered by indoor and outdoor air pollution kill 656,000 Chinese citizens each year, and polluted drinking water kills another 95,600.
"Air pollution is estimated to cause approximately two million premature deaths worldwide per year," said Michal Krzyzanowski, an air quality adviser at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Damaging air pollutants include sulfur dioxide, particulate matter—a mixture of extremely small particles and water droplets—ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. China accounts for roughly one-third of the global total for these pollutants.
The combustion of fossil fuels—whether to power China's many automobiles, its burgeoning factories, or its expanding megacities—is a primary source of outdoor air pollutants.
The burning of coal or charcoal to heat homes, common throughout China, also produces a range of indoor air pollutants.
Eek!
Numbers of the black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata)—which, like all lemur species, is found only on the African island of Madagascar—have dwindled as a result of predation and habitat loss.
Last week the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added several species and subspecies of primates, including the ruffed lemur, to the "critically endangered" category in its Red List of Threatened Species.
Bring Your Own Bag
Some of the MS Youth members proudly showing off the reusable bags
Thank You MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT, for kindly sponsoring us these wonderful bags =)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Plan to turn Sg Akar landfill into a park
Source: Brunei Times by Rasidah H A B. To view article from Brunei Times website click here.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
THE Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) is planning to close the Sg Akar landfill and turn it into a recreational park.
The board recently opened tenders for the design and construction of the systems and facilities for the closure and transformation of the 33 hectare rubbish dump site and for the operation and maintenance of the adjoining 20 hectare site as a transitional rubbish dump site for a period of up to five years.
Among the essential requirements to be met by the potential companies is that it must be a reputable local, international or joint venture company with relevant expertise in solid waste management and the engineered closure of solid waste dump sites.
The transformation project aims to rehabilitate the rubbish dump site and transform it into a green zone which can be used for recreational purposes, with landscaping, ponds, roads and other facilities.
The Sungai Akar landfill at the moment is operating at full capacity, and receives most of the 300 tonnes of waste per day produced in Brunei-Muara district. The current conventional dumping system is no longer appropriate to handle the waste.
Previously, The Brunei Times had reported residents' complaints that the rubbish landfill area is not only a persistent nuisance with foul smell and flies everywhere, but also poses serious environmental and health hazards.
The transformation of the rubbish dump site would require eradicating rodents, pests and the foul smell emanating from the site within the shortest period possible. The project also requires the implementation of an engineering system to remove contamination to ground and surface water.
The tender also calls for a facility for public education to promote awareness on the transformation of the dump site and the importance of solid waste management.
*Bahri: finally my prayers have been answered!*
The board recently opened tenders for the design and construction of the systems and facilities for the closure and transformation of the 33 hectare rubbish dump site and for the operation and maintenance of the adjoining 20 hectare site as a transitional rubbish dump site for a period of up to five years.
Among the essential requirements to be met by the potential companies is that it must be a reputable local, international or joint venture company with relevant expertise in solid waste management and the engineered closure of solid waste dump sites.
The transformation project aims to rehabilitate the rubbish dump site and transform it into a green zone which can be used for recreational purposes, with landscaping, ponds, roads and other facilities.
The Sungai Akar landfill at the moment is operating at full capacity, and receives most of the 300 tonnes of waste per day produced in Brunei-Muara district. The current conventional dumping system is no longer appropriate to handle the waste.
Previously, The Brunei Times had reported residents' complaints that the rubbish landfill area is not only a persistent nuisance with foul smell and flies everywhere, but also poses serious environmental and health hazards.
The transformation of the rubbish dump site would require eradicating rodents, pests and the foul smell emanating from the site within the shortest period possible. The project also requires the implementation of an engineering system to remove contamination to ground and surface water.
The tender also calls for a facility for public education to promote awareness on the transformation of the dump site and the importance of solid waste management.
*Bahri: finally my prayers have been answered!*
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Sungai Akar Dumpsite
Source from informative Mr. Brunei Resources' article here.
Not In My Backyard
I thought I will spend a bit of time on the rubbish dump problem that everyone is talking about nowadays. Sungai Akar Dump is interesting - not rubbish dump interesting but it makes a classic administrative failure case study.
The history of rubbish dumps in Brunei has always been where the municipal waste goes to. Once Brunei starts urbanising, that is when rubbish starts being created. Most of us who lived in the non city centre in the earlier days learnt how to deal with our rubbish earlier on which is mostly burning them. But in the municipal area, there are trucks and rubbish collectors who do the rubbish throwing for the residents. In the very early days, rubbish was dumped at Pusar Ulak being the first rubbish dump in Brunei. As Bandar grows bigger and encroached to Pusar Ulak, it was Batu 2 at Jalan Tutong where the second rubbish dump was created.
But even Batu 2 gets encroached by the enlarging Brunei Town, the third dump site was near where the City Hall is at the moment at Kumbang Pasang. Even that was found unsuitable before rubbish was dumped at Jalan Menteri Besar, next to where Ministry of Health is. Yup, that huge forest next to MOH was a former rubbish dump site. The forest has been thinned up now and there is a park built by the Environment Department on it. For a time before government agencies started to be built in the area, Jalan Menteri Besar was for a time known as Jalan Sampah. By the early 80s, that started to be too full and search went on for the fifth dump site.
And that's when Sungai Akar started. Sungai Akar was supposed to have closed down by the end of the 1990s and something to replace it. Sungai Akar was essentially a municipal dump site but by then, rubbish collectors sensing a business opportunity offered their services not just to rubbish inside the municipal area but also to the growing number of households outside it. More and more rubbish was collected and more and more are dumped into Sungai Akar. Everyone expects BSB Municipal Department to find a solution. But it is not their fault too. Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Department does not have the ability and by 2004, the newly created Environment, Parks and Recreation Department under the Ministry of Development was asked to take over.
It was only then studies are conducted and by this year under the new five year Development Plan, was the money available to do something about Sungai Akar. Finding a new dump site is not easy - it suffers from the NIMBY effect. Not in my backyard. Alternatives - incinerators etc. But ashes from incinerators need to be kept properly too and not to mention the gases it produces. There are other bio alternatives too. These also suffered from NIMBY effects and other side effects too. What is also important is to get everyone to save and to push the idea of recycling and reusing so that there will be less sampah by every citizen of this country.
Not In My Backyard
I thought I will spend a bit of time on the rubbish dump problem that everyone is talking about nowadays. Sungai Akar Dump is interesting - not rubbish dump interesting but it makes a classic administrative failure case study.
The history of rubbish dumps in Brunei has always been where the municipal waste goes to. Once Brunei starts urbanising, that is when rubbish starts being created. Most of us who lived in the non city centre in the earlier days learnt how to deal with our rubbish earlier on which is mostly burning them. But in the municipal area, there are trucks and rubbish collectors who do the rubbish throwing for the residents. In the very early days, rubbish was dumped at Pusar Ulak being the first rubbish dump in Brunei. As Bandar grows bigger and encroached to Pusar Ulak, it was Batu 2 at Jalan Tutong where the second rubbish dump was created.
But even Batu 2 gets encroached by the enlarging Brunei Town, the third dump site was near where the City Hall is at the moment at Kumbang Pasang. Even that was found unsuitable before rubbish was dumped at Jalan Menteri Besar, next to where Ministry of Health is. Yup, that huge forest next to MOH was a former rubbish dump site. The forest has been thinned up now and there is a park built by the Environment Department on it. For a time before government agencies started to be built in the area, Jalan Menteri Besar was for a time known as Jalan Sampah. By the early 80s, that started to be too full and search went on for the fifth dump site.
And that's when Sungai Akar started. Sungai Akar was supposed to have closed down by the end of the 1990s and something to replace it. Sungai Akar was essentially a municipal dump site but by then, rubbish collectors sensing a business opportunity offered their services not just to rubbish inside the municipal area but also to the growing number of households outside it. More and more rubbish was collected and more and more are dumped into Sungai Akar. Everyone expects BSB Municipal Department to find a solution. But it is not their fault too. Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Department does not have the ability and by 2004, the newly created Environment, Parks and Recreation Department under the Ministry of Development was asked to take over.
It was only then studies are conducted and by this year under the new five year Development Plan, was the money available to do something about Sungai Akar. Finding a new dump site is not easy - it suffers from the NIMBY effect. Not in my backyard. Alternatives - incinerators etc. But ashes from incinerators need to be kept properly too and not to mention the gases it produces. There are other bio alternatives too. These also suffered from NIMBY effects and other side effects too. What is also important is to get everyone to save and to push the idea of recycling and reusing so that there will be less sampah by every citizen of this country.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Orang utans to be extinct in 50 years
Sabah’s isolated orang utan population in lower Kinabatangan may become extinct in 50 years if no steps are taken urgently to set up wildlife corridor between fragmented forests.
Scientific journal Oryx in its latest publication said although the Kinabatangan population of 1,100 orang utans was more then enough for their survival but many of them were separated into small pockets of less then 250 animals.
It says much more work needs to be carried out to ensure the survival of the orang-utan. It also stresses that that the “pockets” of orang-utan population need a minimum number of 250 orang-utan individuals to survive in the long term.
“It is essential that conservation measures are taken to protect orang-utans outside national parks, and these measures will by necessity be specific to each region,” Oryx wrote in the newly released paper entitled “Distribution and conservation status of the orang-utan on Borneo and Sumatra: How many remain?”
Conservationists and scientists from 16 institutions, including Hutan, a French NGO, wrote the paper.
The Sabah Wildlife Department and Hutan have been studying orang-utan occurrence in protected and unprotected areas for a number of years.
Together with their partners they have engaged the landowners such as the Sabah Foundation, the Sabah Forestry Department as well as private landowners (mostly palm oil companies) in developing innovative conservation strategies to address the issue of orang-utans in unprotected areas.
Genetic modelling carried out by conservation geneticist Dr. Benoit Goossens of Cardiff University and Dr. Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz of HUTAN had shown that the majority of the isolated orang-utan populations in the Kinabatangan would go extinct in less than 50 years if nothing is done to reconnect the populations.
“Having ‘wildlife corridors’ linking isolated lots of forest that are home to orang-utan as well as other wildlife such as the Bornean pygmy elephants, are absolutely crucial to ensure that this wildlife continues to exist in the Kinabatangan,” said Dr Ancrenaz.
The paper also shows a study that reassessed orang-utan populations in Borneo and now finds that an estimated 75 percent of orang-utans in Kalimantan occur outside protected areas.
The Sabah Wildlife Department had in 2004 with HUTAN published a paper in the scientific journal, PLoS Biology that showed that 60 percent of orang-utans in Sabah live outside protected areas. The study was funded by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida).
It was a landmark paper for the world of orang-utan conservation as up to that point scientists in other areas of Borneo and Sumatra (the only two places in the world the orang-utan survive in the wild) were mostly studying and working on orang-utan populations within primary forests which were almost all protected areas, such as national parks.
Hutan has been working together with the Sabah Wildlife Department to develop and implement solutions to conserve the orang-utan in Sabah, Malaysia for the past 10 years.
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