Investigation and management of water pollution sources in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Abstract

The water quality of rivers in Cameron Highlands has deteriorated significantly due to land clearing for agriculture, excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers as well as construction activities in rapidly developing urban areas. It has been investigated that non-point pollution sources (NPSs) are the main contributor of this water quality drop. NPSs are diverse and hard to identify and therefore they are difficult to estimate. Therefore, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide an extensive approach to evaluate land use and other mapping characteristics to explain the spatial distribution of NPSs of contamination in Cameron Highlands. The method to assess pollution sources has been developed using Cameron Highlands Master Plan (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) for integrating GIS databases, as well as pollution loads in the area of study. The results show highest annual runoff is created by forest, 3.56×10 8 m 3 /yr followed by urban development, 1.46×10 8 m 3 /yr. Furthermore, urban development causes highest BOD load (1.31×10 6 kgBOD/yr) while agricultural activities and forest contribute the highest annual loads for phosphorus (6.91×10 4 kgP/yr) and nitrogen (2.50×10 5 kgN/yr), respectively. Therefore, Non-structural management was recommended for the study area, which includes establish and provide technical advisory services unit, develop demonstration farms and provide incentives to encourage farmers in implementing sustainable agricultural management practices.

Land use change in highland area and its impact on river water quality: a review of case studies in Malaysia

“…Apart from soil erosion problem, the water bodies also threatened with agricultural waste runoff and nutrient loss from the expose agriculture soil (Tan and Mokhtar 2011). Good cropping practices such as conservation tillage can minimize the soil erosion and runoff by leaving the residue of the previous crop on the agriculture field after harvesting before and after planting the new crop cycle (Eisakhani et al 2011).…”

“…Precipitation does influence the rate of runoff, nutrient loss, and soil erosion into the catchment area especially during and in the post-monsoon period (Eisakhani et al 2011;Sholagberu et al 2016). High precipitation increases the rain-splash and runoff detachment on the hill slopes resulting in a high wash of load into the rivers (Sholagberu et al 2016;Diyabalanage et al 2017).…”

Assessment of land cover and land use change impact on soil loss in a tropical catchment by using multitemporal SPOT‐5 satellite images and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model

“…The study area has experienced considerable property damage and human losses due to natural hazards, such as floods, landslides, and debris flow, and is further deteriorated by erosion processes. The rate of runoff and soil erosion in the catchment area is affected by precipitation especially during and in the postmonsoon period (Eisakhani, Pauzi, Karim, & Malakahmad, 2011). The Cameron Highlands is drained by three main river systems, namely, Sg.…”