CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Water is the most valuable resources that are very useful for every life form that existed.
River plays an important role in the growth of the city in Malaysia. In the early stages of
Malaysia's urban history, the river affects the siting of the city. If checked, all Malaysia's
initial cities are located at rivers such as Kuala Lumpur, Alor Star, Kuching and Melaka City.
In addition, there is still many another small town located at the edge or river estuary
(Drabble, 2000).

However, since the revolution industry in Malaysia that takes place in the 18th century,
rivers in Malaysia started to experience a decreasing state of the quality. In today’s era, more
than 201 rivers are classified as polluted. All these problems are actually stemming from
human attitude which considers the river as an easy channel to remove all the garbage, dirt
and waste. As a result, this development has broken the relationship between communities
with rivers because the river can no longer be used by the community to do various activities
like bathing, washing, fishing and recreation. Use of the river is currently limited to its
function as a transport route only (Mohamad, 2005).

Muar River has a lot of natural river ecosystem where the community around the river
gains their daily income by fishing, providing boat for tourist and etc. Due to industry and
agricultural, the quality of Muar river water starts to decreasing. Therefore, the cleanliness of
the river should be maintained and controlled systematically so that the water quality is
always at a good level. This is because the river is one of the main income sources for the
community and if the river is not being maintained and monitored, thus the river will be
 polluted. Hence, each individual should be able to play a role in maintaining the cleanliness
and quality of river water.

1.2 Background of Study

Based on a research by (Rosman, 2015) Muar River pollution is from the agriculture
activities. Due to agriculture activities the Muar River basin has become considerably poor
and polluted due to the diffusion form agriculture activities. The Muar River Basin was
categories as slight polluted river under class II and class III (report, 2009).
Based on study by (Razelan, 2016) the Segamat River was highly polluted under class III
and class IV. The causes of the river pollution are from the agricultural activities and the
effluent from the Segamat town area that directly flow along the river without doing any
water treatment to the effluent. This can be observed that the Muar River area Panchor,
consist a small town area and agricultural activities that may contaminated along the Muar
River.
From the study of (Bahaman Abu Samah, et al., 2011) based on an analysis of 300
respondents from 19 villages along Muar River indicates that, the recreational activities such
as fishing and prawn fishing are their sources of daily income. This indicates that the water
should be in good quality for the fisherman to have their daily income passively and if the
water is in bad quality, the fishes and the prawns might not able to live.
1.3 Problem statement

The Muar River is located along the Muar district and this research is focused near Panchor.
This study focuses on river flowing around the small town of the panchor area. These factors
are likely to contribute to the pollution of the river water. Near the area there is also a
construction site that is being developed by Sime Darby Company that also may contribute to
the degradation of the river’s quality.

Based on the Malaysia Environmental Quality Report (2015), about 201 rivers were
categorized as polluted rivers. About 168 rivers are slightly polluted and 33 river pollute
heavily. The Department of Environment has been carried out Water Quality Monitoring
Program and the outcome of the program stated that the status of the Muar River is slightly
polluted with WQI value of 83 (DOE, 2015) The main problem that occurs in Muar River is
from the agriculture activities. The uses of agriculture land is to be remain dominant feature
of the entire basin where the water quality in the Muar River has become poor and polluted
due to diffuse pollution originating from agriculture activities. Other than that, water
pollution in Muar River derived from numerous sources of pollution that may adversely
affect the water quality. These major sources are from agriculture and minor sources
pollutions derived from domestic and industrial wastewater.

From preliminary questionnaire that being distributed to 30 respondents, a vastly majority

stated that the river is in a bad quality and affecting their recreational activities such as
fishing. A total of 27 respondents agree to commit a research about the Muar River and the
needs to know about the current condition of the Muar River near their small Panchor’s town.
1.4 Objectives of study

The objectives of this study are:

i. Identify factors that contribute to the pollution of the Muar River near Panchor
town.

ii. Determine the classification of the river water quality in terms of 6 parameters
based on National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia.

iii. Recommending methods to improve the water quality and control measures to
maintain the river water quality

1.5 Scope of study

i. The study involved areas near the vicinity of Muar River at Panchor such as panchor
towns, panchor villages, oil palm plantation areas and nearby construction sites to
analyze the water quality level. A total of 8 point will be collected to analyse.

ii. Water samples will be taken to the laboratory to be analyzed the parameters for BOD,
COD, AN, DO, pH, and suspended solids to determine the water quality level.

iii. Each point will be conducted at least three times and an average will be calculated to
reduce any forms of error.

iv. Classifying of the water will be conducted based on National Water Quality
Standards For Malaysia.
1.6 Methodology

To achieve the aim and objectives mentioned, few steps need to adopt in this study, which
comprised of:
a. Research title
This is a basic advance on what issue should have been tackled and how to
transform the thought into a research title. The problem statement of this research
needs to recognize unmistakably as would be prudent. The issues that need to be
considering for the title should be carried out in this step.

b. Literature Review study

Studies on any related experimental work of water quality assessment as a
guideline to perform this study and to gain any new information.

c. Experimental work
The experiment will be conduct with setting up the samples of 8 points that being
taken along the Panchor River and the test of BOD, COD, AN, DO, pH, and
suspended solids test will be conducted. Each point will be performed three times
and an average will be taken in order to reduce error.

d. Result Analysis and Discussion

BOD, COD, AN, DO, pH, and suspended solids results of each result will be
highlight and classification will performed. Exchange on the outcomes will be
completed and thought or enhancements will be made.

e. Conclusion
Make a conclusion for the research by specifying the results of the research and
suggestion for improvement.
1.7 Expected Results

The expectation from this study is to gain the quality of the water that should be better than
the previous that stated by the Department of Environment Malaysia in 2015. On the other
hand, to approve the hypothesis that the agriculture activities nearby and the town effluent
causes the river to be polluted.

1.8 Conclusion

To conclude this introduction, based on previous data on 2015, it indicates that the Muar
River WQI is 83. This indicates that the river is slightly polluted and the sources near
Panchor area are might be from the agricultural activities nearby and the effluent from the
nearby town. From this study, the expected results can either be achieved or not.