Integrated River Basin Management: incorporating the use of abandoned mining pool and implication on water quality status

Abstract

Exploring alternative water resource has been an option in an Integrated River Basin Management approach for Selangor River Basin, Malaysia. This includes the use of abandoned mining pool water as additional raw water resource to downstream water treatment plants. Monitoring of water quality along Selangor River was performed at selected locations within the river basin including active (sand mining) and abandoned mining pools to evaluate on current water quality status of the river for raw water supply. Measured variables were compared with the recommended acceptable value by the Ministry of Health (MOH) for guideline compliance. Generally, the abandoned mining pools were classified as Class II according to Water Quality Index sufficient to be used as alternative water resource in terms of water quality and have metal contents below the recommended acceptable values. The water intake point of the water treatment plant downstream the river basin indicated satisfactory water quality level and in compliance with the MOH guidelines despite partly sourced from the abandoned mining pool.

Keywords:

• Alternative water resource
• Mine water
• Integrated river basin management
• Water quality index, water supply

Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by the Universiti Putra Malaysia and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) through the grant nos. FRGS (5524261), RUGS (9330700), Putra IPM (9433300). The authors would like to thank the technical staffs of Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) for their cooperation throughout the period of the study. Special thanks are due to the Director of LUAS, Mr Md Khairi Selamat for his support on the present study.

Notes

Presented at The 2nd IWA Malaysia Young Water Professionals Conference 2015 (YWP15) Aspiring Beyond Water Solution, March 17–20, 2015, Langkawi Island, Malaysia