27 May 2012| last updated at 12:24AM
By A. Jalil Hamid | jalil@nstp.com.my HEALTH HAZARD: The problems of uncollected rubbish has raised the people's ire
LIKE other Asian countries, we are producing a great deal of rubbish each day, but we are not very good at disposing of them.
According to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia's largest cities generate on average 760,000 tonnes of solid waste per day. This is expected to double to 1.8 million tonnes by 2025.
ADB experts have warned that Asian cities, some lacking financial and other necessary resources, could be overwhelmed by the growing volume and toxicity of waste.
In most of our towns, landfills seem to be the preferred method of dumping rubbish. But they could prove to be hazardous to our health.
When toxic wastes are land disposed, leachates may leak from the waste and contaminated the ground- water. This can poison the soil and our rivers.
Take the case of the Citarum River near the Indonesian city of Bandung. Many years ago, the river was a clean waterway where villagers earned their living cultivating rice and selling fish.
Today, it is choked with plastic, filled with chemicals and human waste.
The villagers no longer make money from fishing any more. Instead, they scour the river, looking for discarded items that can be recovered and sold for cash.
Rapid industrialisation since the 1980s has spawned the growth of more than 500 textile factories along the river, many of them discharging hazardous chemicals into the river.
Malaysia currently produces more than 23,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, with less than five per cent of the waste being recycled.
In Selangor alone, the amount of solid waste could rise to 6,000 tonnes by 2017. More than 19 per cent of waste end up in our drains, which then causes flash floods and other health problems.
Of all the states, the garbage problem is most acute in Selangor, stemming largely from the state's controversial move to take over garbage collection from waste management concessionaire Alam Flora Sdn Bhd in October last year.
Admittedly, many local authorities in Selangor lack proper recovery, treatment or disposal of garbage. In most cases, some of the waste goes uncollected.
The people of Selangor are now facing the brunt of the injudicious decision of the Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor government.
The immeasurable suffering of Klang and Kajang folk following a spate of flash floods recently was just one consequence of the lackadaisical attitude of the respective local authorities in dealing with rubbish disposal.
More worryingly, it has become a serious health issue.
The Selangor Health Department has reported that the number of dengue cases in Selangor has doubled in less than three months to 4,161 as of May 19.
Ten people have died from dengue fever in the period.
In fact, Selangor accounted for more than half of the total dengue cases in the whole country so far.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has put the blame on local authorities in Selangor.
"Local authorities must ensure they follow the garbage collection schedule strictly," he said recently, noting that it takes less than seven days for aedes mosquitoes to breed in rubbish dumps.
Selangor executive councillor in charge of health, Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, refused to point fingers at the local authorities over the rubbish issue. Instead, he blamed the "unpredictable weather" and the public's "lack of awareness" of the dengue outbreak.
Residents in Shah Alam and other major towns in Selangor have been up in arms against their local councils over the rubbish issue and have taken their grouses to the mainstream media and social media.
"The local councillors in charge of the area are busy giving only political speeches and fail to see whether the (rubbish collection) contractors are doing their job," M. Selventhiran, a resident in Batu 4, Jalan Kampung Jawa in Klang, told Bernama.
The Selangor government insisted that the hiccups over the takeover of rubbish collection from Alam Flora had been sorted out and that the issue was now under control.
The takeover had enabled the state government to save some RM67 million this year, according to the menteri besar's office.
The savings were made through the elimination of "agent and management fees", it claimed.
Alam Flora has said that the state government still owed the company some RM24 million despite the termination of its services last year.
Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has had his hands full since taking over the state following the March 2008 general election.
Besides the problem of water supply (the prospect of a water crisis by 2014 is real), the rubbish issue has also raised the people's ire.
The garbage crisis is more than just an environmental issue -- it threatens the state's economy by undermining its competitive edge, hindering tourism and discouraging investments.
No one wants to invest or tour a place if it is heavily polluted.
