Eco-Ideal will present a poster presentation paper in the ISWA/WMRAS World Congress 2008 that will take place from 3 – 6 November 2008 in Suntec Singapore.
Waste Management in Developing Countries
For further information about the congress please follow the link as attached below
http://www.iswa2008.org/iswa/website/
Posters Presentaters: Applying Integrated Data Management System (GeoEnviron) to Meet New Challenges in Solid Waste Management of Malaysia
Hun Yang, Soon Ing Ping, Luk & Erik, Kirsbo Eco-Ideal Consulting Sdn. Bhd. / Eco-Ideal Systems (Malaysia) / Geokon A/S (Denmark)
Executive summary
Malaysia has experienced rapid economic development and urban transformation over the last decade. The amount and type of solid waste generated has also increased corresponding to the economic growth and improved living standards. Solid waste has been traditionally managed at municipal level over the last 30 years without much special attention. Waste from non domestic sources (e.g. industries, construction sector etc.) has been managed by the industries themselves and not widely regulated and monitored. With rapid urbanization and growing awareness, many problems (such as pollution, lack of financing of improving services and new facilities) related to waste disposal has resulted to a drastic change in management direction in 2007. In 2007, the Government of Malaysia gazetted a comprehensive Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act. This new regulation forms the basis of reforming the entire solid waste management throughout the Peninsula Malaysia. A federal department as well as a corporation is currently being established to take over the solid waste management functions from the local authorities (municipalities). The new law will cover not only domestic waste but include all other solid waste from different sectors i.e. industries, business entities, construction sector and so forth but exclude hazardous waste.
Since solid waste has not been the priority of urban governance before, available data and information on solid waste has been overlook and is very limited. Given the task to take over and improve the entire management of solid waste from more than 100 local municipalities, the challenges of the new federal Department of National Solid Waste Management and Corporation are tremendous. They are in need to immediately establish a comprehensive data management IT system as fundamental basis for policy, strategy planning as well as the daily monitoring and reporting. Holistic strategic planning and monitoring require comprehensive, relational and reliable data and information.
This paper presents a proposal in developing an integrated national solid waste data management system to meet the above challenges. The backbone of the system is GeoEnviron (a server based centralized database) which applies proven database system and experiences from Europe (particularly Denmark). Similar database has already been set up in Kuching, Sarawak of Malaysia. Such database, integrated with numerous useful IT applications such as GIS, internet etc., would integrate all spatial and non spatial data into the planning and management of solid waste.
Keywords
Solid Waste Management, Integrated Data Management System, GIS Integration.
