A healthy environment is important for a healthy life.

Without the suitable

environment, most living things will not survive long. Nowadays, the environment is
infected by dangerous activities. Most of these problems were caused by human
activities. The most highlighted problem within the societies, especially in Malaysia,
is the pollution. Pollution is defined as any chemical or substances that alter the
normal surrounding around it. It mixes with the balanced particles and altered the
composition thus causing the problem to living things. The young generation is
severely affected by this because they spend most of their time outdoors. In general,
they are three types of pollution that affected Malaysia which is air pollution, water
pollution, and noise pollution(refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

The first type of pollution is water pollution. Water is essential as one of basic
requirement in life and more than 70 percent of earth surface is covered by water.
Most of the organisms can survive without food but cannot survive without water.
Water pollution is a serious environmental problem in Malaysia. Water pollution can
be defined as the contamination of the water bodies. This form of environmental
degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into the water
without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. According to Malaysian
Environmental Quality Report 2010, the Department of Environment has recorded the
number of clean rivers decreased from 306 in 2009 to 293, slightly polluted rivers
decreased from 217 in 2009 to 203 while the number of polluted rivers increased to
74 from 54 in 2009. This pollution is mainly caused by point source and non-point
source. Point source such as sewage treatment plant, manufacturing and agro-based
industries and animal farms that we expect the main cause for this pollution actually it
is not. The real cause for the water pollution is actually from a non-point source such
as sediment, fertilizer and chemicals from agriculture area and wastes from
construction sites and fields and animal waste from farms. The nonpoint source is
difficult to identify rather than point source because they difficult to be traced back to
the original source of the pollutants. This type of pollution become worse from time
to time have merge concern in Malaysians and it also affects the entire biosphere such
as plants and organisms living in the bodies of water(lakes, rivers and groundwater)
and natural biological communities.
 Air pollution is the second type of pollution. Air pollution is the condition in
which air is contaminated by foreign substances or the substances themselves that
eventually give an impact to human health and the environments. Contamination of
air happens when there are activities like burning of fossil fuels from factories and
cars that emitted sulphur dioxide and a major amount of Carbon Dioxide from the
combustion of coal and petroleum. This cause global warming, acid rains and causes
diseases such as heart attack, cancer, bronchitis and many others. The atmospheric
greenhouse effect keeps our planet warm to be liveable. Heat are trapped by
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere including carbon dioxide (CO2). As mention
earlier, cars and factories emitted sulphur dioxide and major amounts carbon dioxide
(CO2) causes these gases to build up in the atmosphere. The high quantity of sulphur
dioxide and carbon dioxide caused more heat to be trapped. Thus, this caused global
warming. “Air pollution is one of the main causes of premature deaths in the world.
Of all major global health risks, outdoor air pollution in the form of fine particles is
found to be much more dangerous for public health than previously known -
contributing annually to over 2 million premature deaths worldwide” (WHO,2014). In
Asia, the highest rate of premature deaths is in China that recorded over 400 000 of
deaths in 2010 and according to World Health Organisation in Malaysia (2012) air
pollution has caused deaths of 6 251 peoples. This shows that air pollution needs to
control and managed wisely. Every country and nation want to improve and grow
their economy by building more factories, having more cars and cutting trees for
development but they forget to preserve what they already have. Every activity must
be under management because every small step will lead to a bigger success. If there
are no people that care about the environment, then the problem regarding the air
pollution will be getting more serious. “Ditching cars for buses, bikes, or good old
fashioned walking in cities can reduce pollution by 40 percent by 2050” (Jenna
Iacurci, 2014). Hence, it reduces premature deaths and makes the world a better place
by reducing the air pollution.

The third type of pollution is noise pollution. Compared to water pollution and
air pollution, noise pollution is the most common pollution in Malaysia. Noise
pollution is defined as the excessive noise that harms either humans or animals and it
is defined as “sound which is undesired by the recipient” by Christopher (Penn,1979).
It is usually caused by vehicles and the drivers where they used the horn in a way that
causes discomfort to others. The motorcycle is the one of the contributors to noise
pollution and contributes to 40% of the major vehicles. Sharp and Donovan (1979)
show that “more people are exposed to noise from motor vehicles than any other
single source of noise. According to Utusan Online (2001), The frequent places where
this noise problem occurred is at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Chow Kit, Jalan
Tun H.S. Lee, Jalan Raja Laut, Jalan Dang Wangi and Jalan Tun Perak. Effects of
noise pollution to individual is divided into two which are physiological and physical
problems such as hearing problems, mental disorder and in the worst case it can cause
heart attack. They are various sources of this pollution whereas it includes industrial
sources, transport vehicle, and household. For industrial sources, the one that
generates the disturbance was the technology that was used for processing the item
and usually it is located at residential area. Next, transport vehicle cause this pollution
because of lacking patience on the part of driver during waiting for the traffic light
and often they use the hon inappropriate way to cause uneasiness to others (Mondal,
n.d). Workes who work over time are the most affected one because of the sleep cycle
that varies among them.

In conclusion, the type of pollution that exist in Malaysia are three which is
water pollution, air pollution, and noise pollution. It causes a problem to people of
different ages.
REFERENCES:

Essays, UK. (November 2013). The Water Pollution In Malaysia Environmental

Sciences Essay. Retrieved from http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-
samples/environmental-sciences/the-water-pollution-in-malaysia-environmental-
sciences-essay.php?cref=1

Water pollution. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution

Penn, ChristopherN. Noise Control, Shaw & Sons Ltd. 1979: 1-35.

Colls, J. (n.d.). Air Pollution (2nd ed.). London: 2002.Sulphur emission, 16-18.

Aziz, S. Q., L., Asaari, F. A., Ramli, N. A., Aziz, H. A., Mojiri, A., & Umar, M.
(n.d.). Assessment of Traffic Noise Pollution in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia and Erbil
City, Iraq. Assessment of Traffic Noise Pollution in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia and
Erbil City, Iraq. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225285973_Assessment_of_Traffic_Noise_
Pollution_in_Bukit_Mertajam_Malaysia_and_Erbil_City_Iraq
Appendix 1

Types of pollution in Malaysia

Water pollution
Air pollution Noise pollution

Figure 1. Types of pollutions in Malaysia