Industrial Effluent

Oil pollution disrupts sea and shore life for thousands of miles in Asia.  The beautiful coral reefs and mangroves, once existed at those areas are gone. Didn’t they have a chance to exist too?

A healthy earth will surely result in more healthy humans.  How many more years do we have to wait to see some concrete projects being put into practice?

The use of green engineering techniques can help to save marine environment, and also to protect against invasive species and provide buffer against adverse events.

Why are development and conservation not able to co-exist? Impacts of silt during dredging and construction works have already destroyed many of the native marine species.

Dead water causing odours and become rife with micro-algal growth and infectious agents were taking place in Sungai Miri, in Sarawak.

Are you able to produce a range of geographic locations where considerable variety of living organisms in the seas and rivers have been destroyed?

Many oil companies manipulated water samples to hide industrial solvent. They documented falsified samples concealing the presence and the actual levels of contaminants.

I am telling you how to avoid the environmental liabilities many of which may carry civil or criminal penalties in future as the governments of the countries you are working in become more and more transparent every day.

In most countries, the effluent that is drained into public places, drains, rivers, seas etc. must not contain more than 15 ppm of oil. It is very expensive to stick to this target. But the resulting fines would definitely be more expensive.

Your company may be able to get away with it at the moment because of the existing corrupt governments. But how do you make sure the next government will be just as corrupt? Don’t you think an incorruptible government may be elected next?  By then, the fines will be many times more expensive than the expenses you have to spend on treating the effluent properly before dumping it into the sea.

Shouldn’t the governments reward people who come forward to report abused cases?

According to a Smithsonian Institution report, in 1995 alone, 363 million gallons of used oils ended up in the oceans as run-off  from land, municipal or industrial areas. In a polluted river, the water is smelly and discoloured. When oil enters a slow moving river, it forms a rainbow-coloured film over the surface. This layer prevents oxygen from entering the water, killing the animals in the river. Even birds are affected. The feathers of water birds can be contaminated and when they preen, the oil enters the gut, thus killing them.

It does not take a specialist to confirm a biologically dead river. Just stand at the river mouth, facing the sea. Can you see trees or creatures three hundred meters from your left and right?

In September 2007, 378 000 volunteers from Ocean Conservancy, scoured 33 000 miles of shorelines and collected  6 million pounds of debris, from Bahrain to Bangladesh, and in 45 U.S. States, from Southern California to Maine. Why didn't they include South-East Asia in the project?