INTRODUCTION
Malaysia is one of the rapid develope country in Asia ( S.Khadijah et.al, 2013). In Klang Valley area, ground water is not one of the concern for government since many area in this region only used surface water for water supply. Precipitation and recharge from surface water is two common ground water source (K.Subramanya, 2013). Ground water can easily get polluted by the leachate, some form of liquid that can enter into soil structure and interrupt the ground water. Z.Salem in his journal state that when a soluble component are dissolved out of a solid material by percolating water, leachate formation occur. The composition of contaminant in the leachate is differ and extremely changeable to the nature, time and climate ( Z.Salem et.al, 2007). Leachate is very dangerous and harmful to human being because it has contaminants. Leachate can contain organic and inorganic compound such as ammonia, heavy metal, humid acids, persistent synthetics organic and salt ( T.E Butt et.al, 2013). The dangerous of this contaminant is that they can give a health impact to human being if human consume them. The common health problem that link with these contaminant is cancer, skin problem and also child defeat.
Many study have been done and it is found that landfill have already interrupted our ground water. Agamuthu P., in his study indicated that there are heavily contamination of metal element at the Kelana Jaya ex-disposal site. Among these contaminant are arsenic (64.4 mg/kg) and mercury (11.5mg/kg). These two contaminant is exceeding the Ducth Intervention Value for safe condition.
Leachate is a serious issue and not the remote things anymore. The huge impact that could been brought by leachate could effect our environment, health and also economy. These three pillars for sustainable development is the key role for any successful country. In this study, we will brief about how leachate can enter into ground water, why leachate could be happen and who should be blame, the impacts of leachate to the social, human health, economy and also environment, and last but not least is the solution that can be made to cater this problem.
LEACHATE - HOW IT HAPPEN?
When rubbish been brought by the lorry, it will bring with them a liquid contaminant, these liquid contaminant will be dump along with rubbish. Through compacting, pressure and high temperature, these rubbish will undergoes a condensation. This will produce liquid. This liquid compound will be drains from the rubbish and they will passing through various matter, extracts solutes and suspended solids. These multi-liquid compound will combine and become leachate. It takes time for the leachate to form usually years. These leachate will percolate into the soil system and enter into the ground water. If water is allowed to percolate into any material, they will produce leachate ( Z.Salem et.al, 2007).
Leachate also can enter into river and canals. As in Klang Valley area, the main source of water supply is from the river. If this contaminant enter into river systems, it will definitely effect water supply system. A study done by Z.Ismail shows that there are a contamination of heavy metal in Gombak river and Penchala river but it is not that critical. Heavy metal found in that river is chromium, zinc and iron.
LEACHATE - IMPACT TO HEALTH, ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL
Leachate can dangerously impact human being. Leachate can stay under the earth soil through years and years. Shukor Q.A , in his journal state that leachate may contains large amount of organic contaminant measured as BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxigen Demand), ammonia, halogenated hydrocarbon, suspended solid, significant concentration of heavy metal, phenol, nitrogen and phosphorus.
Leachate can enter into human body through two common way which is direct and indirect. Direct way is by eating or drinking any food or water that have been contaminate by the leachate, where as indirect way is when human used contaminate water to bath or domestic used. The main concern about leachate is the heavy metal component. The table below list down all the possible heavy metal component in leachate and their health effect.
Metal
|
Using
|
Effect On health
|
Lead( Pb)
|
Lead paint, batteries, gasoline, cable Agar, piping exterior tank coating, plating, silver paper nervous failure.
|
Anemia, thirst, kidney disease, effects of hemoglobin synthesis
|
Copper (Cu)
|
Wire, other electrical conductors, coin.
|
Muscle pain, hemolytic, heart failure.
|
Cadmium ( Cd)
|
Cell photoelectric, TV phosphorus Electrode cadmium, nickel cadmium battery recharge, pigment in ceramic cleaning, fungi lithography and photography.
|
Lung damage and headache.
|
Chromium ( Cr )
|
Alloys and uncut in sheet metal, nuclear testing and high temperature protective coating for automotive parts chromium containing stainless steel
|
Damages to skin and the problem with damage wrist
|
Silver ( Ag)
|
Solar cells, spoon and forks, jewelry, conductor of electricity, silver pieces
|
Permanent changes in skin, eyes and mucous membrane color
|
Mercury (Hg)
|
Mixture the cathode for the production of caustic soda and chlorine, mercury vapor light
|
Toxic to skin and nervous systems
|
Iron ( Fe)
|
Magnetic alloy production
|
Skin disease, pneumonia, respiratory problems and headache.
|
Table 1 : The used of selected heavy metal and its health effect to human
Leachate can also impact the economy. The increase of landfill site will increase the contaminant in ground water, leachate will stored under our soil and eventually when our country is full of landfill, the ecosystem will interrupted and the tourism industry will drop. In a simple word, no tourist want to visit the tidy place. Leachate will also impact the people health condition in the country. When there is increase of people sicks, the government need to spent more money on that. This will interrupt the development. For example if we look at the country like India which has huge number of people with sickness, their country cannot focus on development, as a result they are left behind. Leachate also impact on property value and business in condition when the land price will drop if that land is beside the landfill area.
Environment as we living in should be protect and conserve. When there are increasing of landfill site, the environment usually will interrupted. Insect and rats will be increase. Ecology will be damage and water pollution will be increase. Socially, landfill area will cause people to relocated their house far from landfill area in order to avoid unpleasant smell. This will bring social problem at certain area. Robbery and snath will be increase due to pollute environment.
Basically, there are a lot of reasons why leachate can enter into ground water systems. One of the common reasons is because poorly design landfill. In Malaysia, there are huge number of old landfill site. The age of the Bukit Tagar landfill is more than 10 years and in near future it no longer can cope the increasing of rubbish volume everyday. That is why government had introduce incinerator method in Broga, Selangor. Another factor is that lack of enforcement by the government and local authority. People tends to throw hazardous substances into the dustbin without proper management. These had increase the leachate contamination in our country. Government should impose a new commission on waste management in Malaysia. We have SPAN for water, SPAD for transportation but nothing for pollution. The government should not give this responsibility only to DOE because conservation and enacting is two different things.
Leachate is a serious issue in Malaysia. Mitigation should be made in order to conserve and protect our environment. First is by increase the awareness among citizen about hazardous chemical and the best way to treat them. Enforcement should be made gradually. Do not do the enforcement just when the pocket is empty. New law should be made and just focusing on leachate problem.Risk analysis should be made on landfill gradually. In United Kingdom, risk assessment has been legislatively introduce to protect ground water ( T.E.Butt, et.al, 2014). The root to grave method should be made in order to manage the waste properly. There are a number of leachate treatment in this world. Treatment like incineration can be practice in Malaysia since it is easy and not too costly. Leachate can effect ground water through seepage. Fully engineered landfill with compacted clay and geo-membrane liner should be made to avoid this seepage ( M. Raihan et.al.,2011).
Conclusion
As a developed country, landfill is a must. Malaysia in the near future is going to face a challenge of not only in waste management but also in finding suitable place for future landfill. If the government ignore the important of waste management, leachate will be one of the threat to the future generation. Leachate could be the potential pollution source if it is not collected, treated and discharge safely (T.E.Butt et al, 2014). As a result, our future generation will suffer various health effect plus economy drop and also losses of biodiversity. It is our responsibility to conserve the environment. From this study, we can conclude that waste management is an important things. Leachate is related to water resource. The scarcity of future water resource is un imaginable. If there are no immediate action taken, we will facing this problem faster than we predict.
References
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