KMAM: Water Sampling and Treatment Plant

Our day started with En. Rahimi taking us on field trip for water sampling, before being led to the Air Pelubang water treatment plant.

Before water can be sampled, the tap is left to run for about 5 minutes to rid it from biased contaminants. During that time, the pressure of the water is checked. If too low the pressure volume, the sample is rejected as it will still be considered biased.

Parameters are checked in water sampling. Such as pH, chlorine and turbidity. Sodium Thiosulphate in the Whirl-Pak is used to neutralize the chlorine. Or else the chlorine will kill the bacteria in the sample. It is then kept in a cool box before the sample is sent to the lab ( has to be sent within 24hours). Or else it will be rejected.

 

There are 2 reservoirs in Kubang Pasu: Bk. Tinggi (one 5L and one 2L tanks) and Bk. Mengkuang( two 5 litre and one 2L tanks).

 

At the water tx plant, the source is raw water from Sg Padang Terap. There is a pump house about 300-400metres away from the treatment plant. 10% Alum is added for sedimentation of the contaminants at the start of the treatment. Here the tanks are cleaned once every month. It is then filtered, added with flouride and chlorine before it is clean. Two types of alum system used, one is auto and the other is manual. Manual is plan B incase if there is power failure or if the parameters are too high for the auto system to comply with. At the lab, they check for pH, chlorine measurement and turbidity for clean water.

 

Incase if there is an overpowering smell, oil, colour of more than 5 even after 2 hours, or turbidity of more than 3000ntu, the water tx plant has to be shut down. SIRIM does an audit once every year for ISO certification.

 

Footnote: Polymers are not used for sedimentation although that is a more efficient technique due to high maintenance. It requires the tanks to be cleaned once every 4 hours.

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KPAS and Health Promotion

We had a talk with Mr.Yadzid on the Occupational Safety and Health. The organizational hierarcy starts with the Pegawai Kesihatan Daerah, followed by the Secretary, representatives of the Employers and Employees. As there are more than 200 employees in t.he Kubang Pasu DHO, hence it too has a unit dedicated to occupational safety and health. The function of this unit as we learnt is to help in methods contributing to safety in the working environment as well as to observe the trends of near accidents. DOSH and NIOSH are not directly related to this unit, rather it can be said that this unit is within the DOSH and NIOSH surveillance. We also learnt that KPAS is governed by one very important law, that is the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, and oversees both the clinic and all units within the district health office. For instance, when in alliance with the Vector unit, they ensure that the staff is well equipped with PPEs so that they are well protected from any occupational hazards. Wen fogging, the handlers need to be adorned in goggles, ear muffs, coveralls, gloves, boots.. An RM50000 compound is imposed on the employer if the PPE is not provided, whereas an RM1000 compound is imposed on the employee if they refuse to use the PPE provided. There arent any statistics of accidents for Kubang Pasu, however we were shown some examples of forms used to fill for notification of accidents. And with this marked the end of our session.

Mr. Ahmad Mahmud then came in to continue with a talk on Health Promotion. Here we covered two improtant subjects, PROSTAR and DOKTOR MUDA. The public are consistently kept aware of health and its importance through exhibitions, education and talks. Exhibitions are done 4 times a month, whether by invitation or their own initiative. Talks are conducted by the emergence of new diseases or invitations by agencies. It gives a step-by-step enlightment for both the staff and public. Announcements are made in outbreak areas, health education is given on current issues such as H1N1 and dengue. Other supporting information is given via pamphlets and even moving vehicles.

Dr.Muda was first launched in 2003 in the Kubang Pasu district. In 2007, it was implemented as a co-curicular activity in primary schools. Approximately 20-30 are chosen by the school to participate in the programme. The criteria that must be fulfilled is 1) Top students, 2) Interest given, 3) Consent of both parents, 4) Well groomed. Currently there are 23 schools in this district that are running the Dr. Muda programme. An additional 4 schools are added every year.

PROSTAR is implemented at the secondary school level, The age criteria is between 13-25years. Currently there are 20 schools in the Kubang Pasu district that are active in PROSTAR with the Mesyuarat Agong being held once every year. The membership fees is RM2 for students in Form 3 – 6. An annual fee of RM5 is charged for normal membership. There are 4 modules revolving around PROSTAR – 1) Peer counsellor, 2) Facilitator, 3) Camp for teens who show promise, 4) Normal camp. The next activity to be held by the DHO-PROSTAR is the rehabilitation of people with confused orientation.

District Vector Control

This blog is not diligently updated due to poor internet connectivity. And oh man…. We had to pay RM1/hour just to use the plug point at the diners we ate in!!!

We arrived at the DHO office at 8.00am for our topic on District Vector Control. We attended a meeting conducted at the start of the day by the Vector Control Unit. Here they discussed on areas known to be dengue hotspots.

Right after the meeting, we were invited to join the unit in surveying Kampung Carok Tok Latah for dengue larvae. It was brought to our attention that the surveys are usually conducted in the mornings and the fogging in the evening as that is when the mosquitoes are known to be at their parasitic best.

We arrived at the Kampung by about 9.30am, ie. 20 minutes after our departure from the DHO. We parked our cars at a convenient spot at the side of the road and proceeded with the crew to our first target. I must say, professionalism was indeed practised.

The personnel in charge, Mr. Rosli guided us throughout the procedure. He went up to the lady of the house and introduced himself, his partner and us. He stated his intentions for being there as well as flashed his tag to confirm his identity. He then asked the permission of the lady to inspect her house, both inside as well as out. Making sure the lady was there throughout the inspection, he showed us prone areas for breeding such as the water container beneath the refrigerator, bird feeding containers, tubs inside the house. Outside we were shown areas such as tyres, flowers pots and containers that are upright.

As were were moving from house to house, we did get to see some breeding sites for mosquitoes, the first being an abandoned container outside a house whose owner was not in. As such, Mr. Rosli was only able to collect a sample and seal the bottle, and overturn the container to ensure the larvae did not complete its life cycle. By right, the owner is supposed to witness the collection of the sample into an empty bottle, give his particulars, and the container labelled with adequate information of the site, time etc.

We then went to five other houses…. well actually four others.  The last house was teatime:)… Rambutans!!

After filling our tummies to our hearts content, we headed back to the DHO. There, Pn. Yusnita gave us a briefing on whatever we did that day as well as its purposes, before being joined by En. Johari. Boy was he a firecracker. He interrogated us on our knowledge ( dear lecturers, you will be proud to know that we managed to answer most of the questions to do AIMST proud. Yes, even we amaze ourselves sometimes). He was a breath of fresh air. Life was brought to the rest of our briefing. We then adjourned for our lunch break.

After lunch, we met another pleasant personnel, En.Mohd. who took us into the lab two-by-two to have us view the fruits of our labor under the microscope. We were shown how to differentiate between the A. aegypti, the A. albopictus and the culex mosquito by looking at the combteeth at the caudal end of the abdomen just before the siphons meet.

Allowing us to prepare the slides, he continued to share his knowledge with patience before finally calling it a day. During that time, we managed to fulfill one of our objectives… Poison Concoction!! – to eliminate the mosquitoes. When using the Agrofog machinery, the ratio is 40mL poison to 1 litre diesel; 160mL poison to 4 litres diesel; or 400mL to 10 litres diesel. Similarly, when using the Ultra-Low Volume (ULV) machinery, the ratio is 10 litres poison to 15 litres diesel.

I must say, Jitra has been good to us thus far. The people here are nice and the warmth shown to us is overwhelming. Signing out for now – xoxo Lynette.

Day 2

We have some interesting outings. We went to a few kampung (rural area) with the BAKAS unit staff. There, we’ve shown the

1. Sistem Pelupusan Pepejal. A few methods is shown. I’m sorry to say but koo’s having the picture.It’s quite hard to explain by words.Hopefully, others might get a chance to see them too…
2. Sistem Perlimbahan. The water from the kitchen and bathroom are filtered in a small box like area built outside the house. the the water after filtered will be transfer to a Cement built ‘reservoir’/ Koh/ Pembentong/ Gelung semen. (not sure how to translate- abv is all the names that is used to describe the same thing). Here, the water is absorbed down to the earth.
3. Perigi Terkawal/ Controlled Well. It is used in rural areas without water supply from JBA. It’s actually a well that get their source from the earth. 5 houses will be sharing 1 well. It’s easy to operate and saves water.

That’s all for today. Again we still haven’t got our timetable……. And finishes around 12.30pm.

Day 1- 4Jul- Richai

What a bad day!

The DHO staffs claims that they didn’t recieve AIMST letter.

Luckily Lynette has the copy for the letter. So. We’re mot expected by them today and so we finished at about 11am. We been introduced to the Inspectorate Sector of the DHO theretically by En. Osman bin Ali.

Below is all we’ve discuss today.

The inspectorate Sector contains the following Department:

1. KKM: Keselamatan Kualiti Makanan- Function: Spot Checking the food Premises whether they follows the Law and legislation for SAFE food. If any pathogenic substance foung in food, the food premise’s owner will be fined or brought to court. Imported food sample is also done here. 
2. KMAM: Kawalan Mutu Air Minum. Function: Samples from JKR or JBA or SADA (Syarikat Air Darul Aman) is tesed every week.Sorce of sample includes raw water from the loji air, treatment plant and reservoir. Tests done includes physical, chemical and microbiological tests.
3. KPB/ CDC: Kawalan Penyakit Berjangkit. Function: To confirm suspected cases and report to MOH through notifiable forms. E-notice is checked every morning, afternoon and evening before leaving the office by officers. Disease control and investigating also carried out. 
4. KPBV: Kawalan Penyakit Bahagian Vektor. Function: More to dengue control. There’s no malarial case here according to En. Osman. Fogging  for 200m is done if a case of dengue is reported. If there’s an outbreak,  another fogging will be done for 400m within 7-10days.
5. Non- CDC: Kawalan Penyakit Tidak? Berjangkit….Not sure…..Function:  The operation that is carried out strictly is the anti- smoking operation. Premises selling cigerette is checked to make sure them folloeing the rules.
6. KPAS: Kesihatan Pekerja Alam Sekitar.
7. BAKAS: Unit Bekalan Air & Kesihatan Alam Sekitar. Function: For good water and sanition system, Clean environment, Good Rubbish collecting system.
8. UIP: Unit Penyiasatan & Perundangan. Function: Processes all the documents that is related to the court matter. Eg: saman
9. Unit Promosi. Function: Promoting Health by conducting carnivals, talks, campaign. Eg: PROSTAR

Welcome!

Cliche title aye? Just so this blog does not appear bare and empty.

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So, digressing.

Posting hasn’t started so there’s obviously nothing to blog about (yet) unless some of our members decided to document their preparation before our take off to Kubang Pasu, which is very unlikely. Was going to let Koo have the honor of officiating the blog but he decided to pass so yeah.

Anyway, check out the “About” page by clicking the link at the top of the header next to the “Home” button, if you want to. That’s basically the only page updated for now.

I’ll take off by wishing you guys the best, happy packing, drive safely, and have great fun at your designated assigned areas.

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