Regional sewage treatment plant will improve environment

The construction of a regional sewage treatment plant (RSTP) in Alor Setar will improve the city's environment after small sewage ponds are gradually phased out. Deputy Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said with the RSTP, the sewage will be channeled via underground pipes directly to a large centralised plant. "At the national level, the sewage system is taken seriously and efforts are being undertaken to modernise and improve the sewage treatment system," he told reporters after visiting the Derga sludge treatment plant, here, Thursday. The proposal for the construction of the RSTP in Alor Setar was one of the measures to improve the sewage treatment system in the country. So far, RSTPs had been constructed in Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan. The RSTPs are managed by Indah Water Konsortium (IWK). However, Mahdzir said the construction of RSTPs require substantial cost as the process of installing the underground pipes was not an easy task. "One project will cost RM300 million to RM400 million to costruct. There are 17 RSTPs nationwide of which five are in Kuala Lumpur. "Some RSTPs can accommodate the sewage from about one million population," he added.