Day 8: The Fate of WATER: From The Beginning to The End

As the afternoon’s session gets started, we have been briefed by Encik Azri, who is in-charge of the Bekalan Air dan Kesihatan Alam Sekitar (BAKAS) Unit, regarding the role of Unit BAKAS in the society. It is to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases caused by the environmental conditions (ie. No clean water supply, without sanitary system) by improving or providing a proper water supply and sanitation system.

From The Beginning...

Due to the unfavoured geographical condition in Sik District, a proper water supply system is limited. Hence, most of the water supply provided to the people is through the Gravity Feed System, though the JKR Ministry had started to build more water pumps for the future needs of the people here. According to Encik Azri, in Sik District, there are a total of 17 Gravity Feed System which are notified by the unit and around 30s’ which are built by the villagers and without the notification from the unit.

Locations of The Gravity Feed System (notifited) in Sik

How does a Gravity Feed System work?
Gravity feed is the use of earth's gravity to move something (usually a liquid) from one place to another without a pump. In the terms clean water supply, the Gravity Feed System is a system which in used the gravity force to draw the clean water from a higher areas (water fall, lake…) to a lower ones (villages) and kept for daily usage. However, the water is not treated.

15 years old Hand Pump

On the other hand, hand pumps are still widely in used in the rural areas especially in the sub-district, Sok. There are various types of hand pumps system, but in Malaysia, deep well type is the generally applied type. The installation of a hand pump needs the close mutual aid between both the Unit BAKAS and the villagers.

Firstly, the application must be approved by the District Health Office, and followed by the surveillance of the BAKAS Unit. It is to ensure that the hand pump site is safe, productive, and it is at least 15meters in diameter away from a probable sanitary tank. After the fixation of the site, the villagers will start to construct the root of the pump by digging 15 meters deep into the ground. After that, the BAKAS Unit will establish the system and install the hand pump to the site. A hand pump can supply clean water to 4 – 5 families for their daily usage. However, nowadays the role of a hand pump is slowly substituted by the JKR’s water supply.

JKR's Water Supply

Implemented in 2009

** Both of the programmes are supported and subsidized by the Ministry of Health; hence terms and condition must be fulfilled by the applicants in order to be eligible and recruited into the programme.

Terms and Conditions

• Those who are included in the list Program Perumahan Rakyat Termiskin (PPRT) or Development Programme for The Poor.
  
• Groups of poor people who are not included in the list of PPRT - but have a family income of RM 350.00 and below per month.
• The elderly, single women and disabled
• Houses in the area capable of an outbreak of food-borne diseases / water.
• Low-moving society that found the health education activities are still not able to change the attitude to build its own sanitary facilities.

Surprising fact of Sik:
Sik owned one of the 4 dams in the Kedah State, the Beris Dam, yet there is still insufficient of water supply. Why?

Explanation:
1) Geographical condition
2) Supply irrigation water to southern Kedah and raw water to Penang.


to be continued...

On Sanitation and Waste Product Disposal



Kenny Lim