Scenes of sewage seeping out of manholes and septic tanks and oozing from broken down oxidation ponds. Foul odour emitted by sewage and other effluents draining into a river.
"This is what will happen if there are no sewerage services. Untreated sewage is not only full of stench, but also contains harmful bacteria that spreads various diseases and causes environmental deterioration," Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK) Chief Excecutive Officer Datuk Abdul Kadir Mohd Din, told Bernama recently.
He stated that based on the jump in the collection of bill payments this year, public awareness about the importance of sewerage services seems to be rising, with collections having soared to 83 per cent from 54 per cent in 1997.
However, there are those who are still ignorant.
Sewage treatment provided by IWK is among the cheapest offered in the world, at a mere 27 sen a day.
This roughly works out to about RM8 a month for a connected sewerage system.
This tariff has remained stable for close to two decades.
But what is ironical is the fact that some people still demand that the service should be provided free of charge, despite the fact that the cost of sewerage services is on the rise owing to an escalation in population size as well as maintenance costs.
"Some consumers feel that IWK services are not important for them. They think that services like telecommunication and others are needed more than sewerage services," Abdul Kadir said.
SERVICES THAT ARE NOT VISIBLE
People's refusal to pay for the sewerage services can be attributed to several reasons including the fact that they never see these services being carried out.
As compared with others public services such as power supply, if a disruption takes place, electrical appliances cannot function and this prompts consumers to settle the bills each month.
One of the issues raised by consumers refusing to pay sewerage bills is that they do not get to see IWK workers doing their job in the respective housing estates, which makes the services rendered by them as invisible.
The IWK issues a bill for domestic sewerage services once every six months but starting with this year, it will be billing customers once every three months.
Payment of these bills is important for IWK, which bears the heavy cost of operating and maintaining close to 6,000 sewage treatment plants and 16,000 kilometers long sewerage pipes linked to oxidation ponds.
EFFICIENT SERVICE
Why are consumers unable to see the services being rendered? It is because the sewerage pipes are located underground and cannot be seen.
This work involves technical expertise such as environmental evaluation and the calculation of engineering specifications.
This supposedly surreptitious work fails to draw the attention of consumers and in fact shows that the tasks are carried out so efficiently by IWK, that its workers are only visible when a problem arises.
This also implies that if no IWK workers are visible in public, then sewerage service operations are being carried out properly.
SEWAGE DISPOSAL
How many of us know where the domestic sewage is disposed off?
Modern toilet facilities connected to the sewerage system enable the sewage to be properly disposed and treated. This must be done before the treated effluent is discharged into a river or other surroundings.
"The untreated sewage is transferred to the treatment plants. There, it is treated so that it becomes safe for discharge into public surroundings. According to IWK standards and specifications, the clear water that is discharged by the treatment plant is free from stench and has regained its original appearance. This is what the people fail to comprehend.
"Sewage treatment is a dirty and dangerous job and not many people can do it," Abdul Kadir noted, adding that sewage needs to be properly treated and disposed as it contains water-borne bacteria that can cause cholera, typhoid fever, leptospirosis and other infectious diseases.
If the country's sewerage services are below par and the sewage is not properly treated and disposed off, it will directly impact the nation's tourism industry as well as economy because tourists will opt for other travel destinations.
For only 27 sen a day, consumers can help the IWK in operating efficiently and making consumers' homes, offices and country a safe and comfortable place to stay.-- BERNAMA
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