INDAH WATER KONSORTIUM

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn. Bhd (also known as Indah Water or "IWK") is a national
sewerage company in Malaysia. IWK is wholly government-owned company by the Minister of
Finance, Incorporated which has been entrusted with the task of developing and maintaining a
modern and efficient sewerage system for West Malaysia. IWK is also responsible for providing
sewerage services, operating and maintaining over 5,750 public sewage treatment plants and
maintaining 13,000km networks of sewerage pipelines.

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn. Bhd. develops and maintains public sewage treatment plants
and sewerage pipelines in Malaysia. It specializes in sewerage planning and certification, process
design, environmental assessment, hazard and operability studies, and project management
services. The company also provides individual septic tank, connected, responsive desludging,
sludge treatment, clearing of blockage, and refurbishment services. It serves domestic,
commercial, industrial, and government customers. The company was founded in 1994 and is
based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It has additional offices in Kedah/Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Perak,
Selangor, Federal Territory, Nigeria Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, and Terengganu,
Malaysia.

In 1994, the Federal Government awarded the company the concession for nationwide
sewerage services which prior to that, was under the responsibility of local authorities. Since
then, IWK has taken over the sewerage services from local authorities in all areas except the
States of Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak and the Mallis Perbandaran Johor Bahru. A modern and
efficient sewerage system is vital for the country so as to ensure that wastewater is treated before
being discharged into our rivers. This will help preserve the country's waste resources, protect
public health and provide a cleaner and safer environment.

In June 2000, as testimony of the Government's seriousness in ensuring that a proper and
efficient sewerage system will be successfully put in place and maintained, the Government,
through the Minister of Finance Incorporated, took over the entire equity in IWK from its
previous private owners. IWK is now well-positioned to undertake the vital task of ensuring that
Malaysians today and in the future will be able to enjoy a clean and healthy environment through
a proper and well-maintained sewerage system.

2.0 SEWAGE TREATMENT

Sewage water is wastewater from people living in a community. It is the water released from
households after use for various purposes like washing dishes, laundry, and flushing the toilet,
thus the name wastewater. The used water moves from the houses through pipes installed during
plumbing. The sewage water then moves into sewers, either constructed by the house owner, or
into a sewer facility set up by the municipality.

Sewage, also called wastewater, is the contaminated water from homes, schools, and
businesses. It comes from toilets, showers, clothes washers, dishwashers, etc. The contaminants
include fecal matter, urine, soaps, detergents, food particles, hair, rags, paper, toys, dead
goldfish, and anything else that is disposed in a drain. A person creates an average of 60 to 100
gallons of wastewater every day. Sewers are a network of pipes that bring the sewage to the
treatment plant for treatment. Treatment is the continual process of removing the contaminants
from the wastewater and then processing the removed contaminants into a product that can be
safely recycled.

Mostly, sewage water consists of grey water and black water. Grey water is the waste water
from washing either from bathing, dishes or laundry. Black water is the waste water from toilets.
It is characterized by debris such as paper wrappings, sanitary products, soap residues, and dirt
due to the chemical composition of the various waste materials. Plus, sewage water has a foul
smell.

The concern is that it due to overpopulation in urban areas without proper planning, it has
resulted in Sewage pollution, which poses a threat not only to the environment but also to human
health. It also affects biodiversity, aquatic life, agriculture, and is a major contributor to
eutrophication and an increase in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD).
Types of Sewage

1. Rocky Island
2. Pour flush
3. Individual Septic Tank(setiap umah ada tank)
4. Connected System(piping bwah-kwsn umah,kondo,tmpat kerja)
5. Pump Station(pam utk kwsn rndah naik ke atas)

Causes of Sewage Water

1. The use of toilets as bins

Toilets are designated as fixtures for relieving nature calls. Sadly, careless people have
turned toilets into deposit banks for waste materials such as papers, sanitary products and some
even go to the extent of flushing plastics. These waste materials are the causes of blockages of
sewage ways in most buildings. Blockages lead to over flooding of the toilets served by that
sewer.

These waste materials then result in the clogging of water ways further along sewer lines. For
example, plastics such as soap wrappings clog rivers and prevent further flow due to stagnation.
As a result, it harbors harmful organisms and bacteria. The blockages also lead to air pollution
caused by the spread of the foul smell from the sewer. Generally, sewer treatment plants face a
lot of hardship due to blockages and the foreign material present in the wastewater thereby
causing sewage pollution.

2. Cooking fats

Kitchen products have a lot of fats and oil. Greasy dishes are also washed in kitchen sinks.
These materials are very fast at accumulating at the walls of the pipes where they form coverings
that reduce the diameter of the pipe system which drain wastewater into the sewer.

Continued disposal of fats, oil and grease in sinks subsequently leads to complete blockage
of the sewage system. This is even more hazardous than the blockage caused by toilets. For this
blockage, no amount of cleaning can lead to the removal of the layered cover. This will warrant
new installation of a pipe system, which is cost- bearing. Also, this leads to flooding of houses as
well as pollution caused by bad sewage odours. When the pressure of wastewater is high in a
pipe that is clogged with fats, the obvious result is bursting of pipes which can lead to a messy
situation in houses.

3. Overcapacity of wastewater

Sewers are built to accommodate a certain volume of wastewater. Nevertheless, there are
various reasons why sewers overflow. For starters, there are contractors who on construction of
buildings end up connecting the sewage system of the new building to the existing sewer made
for another residential building. This leads to overflowing of the sewer which is hazardous to
human health and can cause acute viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases like giardiasis, typhoid,
gastroenteritis, and Hepatitis A.

4. Flooding

Flooding is also another factor that increases waste water. When there is excessive rain, as
the water seeks for a pathway, it seeps into sewers and mixes with the waste water leading to
more wastewater in the sewer. If the volume of the sewer is small, chances are that the sewer
system will be unable to hold the increasing volume of water thereby causing sewer pollution.

5. Improper handling of wastewater

It is a practice commonly done by industries. Industries use a lot of water, and for this reason,
release most of it as wastewater. As it is expected, the industries should treat the same water and
bring it back into the industry machinery for reuse. However, most industries operating in areas
with lax environmental policies release this raw sewage into the waterways without the least bit
of treatment.

When this happens, the people living downstream suffer the most from the effects of sewage
pollution. Further, there is subsequent death of aquatic life due to the release of harmful toxins
that interfere with the normal activities of sea life. For instance, the release of ammonia is toxic
to plants. They easily oxidize with the oxygen present in water leading to deprivation of oxygen
to aquatic life.
6. Root infiltration

Tree roots can be a cause of pollution of wastewater. They enter sewer lines at certain points
and crack the pipes or underground sewer tanks leading to seeping of filthy waste water out of
the sewers.

Process of Treating Wastewater

There is a dire need for sewers to be emptied owing to the increasing use of water by people.
Therefore, treatment is essential. It ensures the water released into the local water ways such as
rivers is safe and clean with an aim of ensuring it does not cause harm to the people or the
aquatic life. To ensure the waste water is clean and safe, there are various steps involved in the
treatment process. These include:

1. Pre-treatment

It is the very first step just before the actual treatment. It has two parts with the first one
involving screening of large materials such as bottles, cans, logs and rags. The second part uses a
comminutor which is a mechanical device that has cutting edges that reduce solids to smaller
particles.

After this, the water passes through the grit chamber where the smaller solid materials such as
sand, pebbles and broken glass are removed. This step is essential since it prevents the entry of
large waste material into the water treatment plant leading to clogging or blockages.

2. Primary Treatment

The wastewater at this point is devoid of solid materials and grit but has dissolved organic and
inorganic solids which are treated at this stage. The step takes place in a large sedimentation tank
where these particles are further removed by gravity. The wastewater stays here for a while so
that all particles settle on the floor of the tank forming a solid known as sludge.

3. Secondary Treatment

In this stage, there are two ways to go about it. That is the use of trickling filters or activated
sludge. The trickling filters way entails passing water through a bed of coarse stone. This coarse
stone can be substituted by the use of perforated plastic material. Both of these materials contain
microbes which grow on the surface.

High concentration of oxygen is passed to the microbes which are able to break down the
organic materials that may be present in the wastewater. The wastewater now continues down
the filters to the secondary clarifiers where the microorganisms settle out for disinfection. The
second method involves the use of activated sludge. The wastewater is mixed with the microbes
and aeration is facilitated.

Like in the filters, the microbes feed on the organic molecules and form the activated sludge.
The wastewater now flows into an aeration tank where more aeration of the sludge is done. It
then flows to the secondary clarifiers as a mixture known as mixed liquor, where it settles out for
disinfection.

4. Tertiary Treatment

The secondary treatment does away with most bacteria and viruses. Nevertheless, components
such as nitrogen, phosphorus and others may still be present in the wastewater. This stage
removes these pollutants. Nitrogen is a nutrient that facilitates the growth of algae and water
hyacinth in water.

Moreover, in the form of ammonia, nitrogen demands a lot of oxygen and, therefore, leads to
competition for the gas with sea plants and fish, thus deteriorating aquatic life. As such, it is
removed through a series of processes such as nitrification where ammonia is oxidized to a
nitrate and followed by denitrification, where the nitrate is broken down to nitrogen which is
released to the atmosphere.

Others that passed the secondary treatment are sequestered by carbon absorption where there
is almost 98% removal of organic material. Water processed through this stage is ready for reuse
but as industrial water and can also be released to rivers and other water ways. Further cleaning
can lead to the use of this water for basic purposes such as cleaning.
5. Sludge Treatment

The solid deposits of sludge can be used for various uses. They can be used as fertilizer for
plants. In addition, further alternative processes can lead to production of energy that can be
added to the areas’ energy grid.

3.0 SEWAGE TREATMENT CHARACTERISTIC

Characterization of wastes is essential for an effective and economical waste management

programme. It helps in the choice of treatment methods deciding the extent of treatment,
assessing the beneficial uses of wastes and utilizing the waste purification capacity of natural
bodies of water in a planned and controlled manner. While analysis of wastewater in each
particular case is advisable, data from the other cities may be utilized during initial stage of
planning.

Domestic sewage comprises spent water from kitchen, bathroom, lavatory, etc. The factors
which contribute to variations in characteristics of the domestic sewage are daily per capita use
of water, quality of water supply and the type, condition and extent of sewerage system, and
habits of the people. Municipal sewage, which contains both domestic and industrial wastewater,
may differ from place to place depending upon the type of industries and industrial
establishment. The important characteristics of sewage are discussed here.

1.Temperature

The observations of temperature of sewage are useful in indicating solubility of oxygen,

which affects transfer capacity of aeration equipment in aerobic systems, and rate of biological
activity. Extremely low temperature affects adversely on the efficiency of biological treatment
systems and on efficiency of sedimentation. In general, under Indian conditions the temperature
of the raw sewage is observed to be between 15 and 35°C at various places in different seasons.

2.The pH

The hydrogen ion concentration expressed as pH, is a valuable parameter in the operation of
biological units. The pH of the fresh sewage is slightly more than the water supplied to the
community. However, decomposition of organic matter may lower the pH, while the presence of
industrial wastewater may produce extreme fluctuations. Generally the pH of raw sewage is in
the range 5.5 to 8.0.

3.Colour and Odour

Fresh domestic sewage has a slightly soapy and cloudy appearance depending upon its
concentration. As time passes the sewage becomes stale, darkening in colour with a pronounced
smell due to microbial activity.

4.Solids

Though sewage generally contains less than 0.5 percent solids, the rest being water, still the
nuisance caused by the solids cannot be overlooked, as these solids are highly degradable and
therefore need proper disposal. The sewage solids may be classified into dissolved solids,
suspended solids and volatile suspended solids. Knowledge of the volatile or organic fraction of
solid, which decomposes, becomes necessary, as this constitutes the load on biological treatment
units or oxygen resources of a stream when sewage is disposed off by dilution. The estimation of
suspended solids, both organic and inorganic, gives a general picture of the load on
sedimentation and grit removal system during sewage treatment. Dissolved inorganic fraction is
to be considered when sewage is used for land irrigation or any other reuse is planned.

5.Nitrogen and Phosphorus

The principal nitrogen compounds in domestic sewage are proteins, amines, amino acids, and
urea. Ammonia nitrogen in sewage results from the bacterial decomposition of these organic
constituents. Nitrogen being an essential component of biological protoplasm, its concentration
is important for proper functioning of biological treatment systems and disposal on land.
Generally, the domestic sewage contains sufficient nitrogen, to take care of the needs of the
biological treatment. For industrial wastewater if sufficient nitrogen is not present it is required
to be added externally. Generally nitrogen content in the untreated sewage is observed to be in
the range of 20 to 50 mg/L measured as TKN.

Phosphorus is contributing to domestic sewage from food residues containing phosphorus

and their breakdown products. The use of increased quantities of synthetic detergents adds
substantially to the phosphorus content of sewage. Phosphorus is also an essential nutrient for the
biological processes. The concentration of phosphorus in domestic sewage is generally adequate
to support aerobic biological wastewater treatment. However, it will be matter of concerned
when the treated effluent is to be reused. The concentration of PO4 in raw sewage is generally
observed in the range of 5 to 10 mg/L.

6.Chlorides

Concentration of chlorides in sewage is greater than the normal chloride content of water
supply. The chloride concentration in excess than the water supplied can be used as an index of
the strength of the sewage. The daily contribution of chloride averages to about 8 gm per person.
Based on an average sewage flow of 150 LPCD, this would result in the chloride content of
sewage being 50 mg/L higher than that of the water supplied. Any abnormal increase should
indicate discharge of chloride bearing wastes or saline groundwater infiltration, the latter adding
to the sulphates as well, which may lead to excessive generation of hydrogen sulphide.

7.Organic Material

Organic compounds present in sewage are of particular interest for environmental

engineering. A large variety of microorganisms (that may be present in the sewage or in the
receiving water body) interact with the organic material by using it as an energy or material
source. The utilization of the organic material by microorganisms is called metabolism. The
conversion of organic material by microorganism to obtain energy is called catabolism and the
incorporation of organic material in the cellular material is called anabolism. To describe the
metabolism of microorganisms and oxidation of organic material, it is necessary to characterize
quantitatively concentration of organic matter in different forms. In view of the enormous variety
of organic compounds in sewage it is totally unpractical to determine these individually. Thus a
parameter must be used that characterizes a property that all these have in common. In practice
two properties of almost all organic compounds can be used:

(1) organic compound can be oxidized.

(2) organic compounds contain organic carbon.

 In environmental engineering there are two standard tests based on the oxidation of organic
material:

1) Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

2) Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).

In both tests, the organic material concentration is measured during the test. The essential
differences between the COD and the BOD tests are in the oxidant utilized and the operational
conditions imposed during the test such as biochemical oxidation and chemical oxidation. The
other method for measuring organic material is the development of the Total Organic Carbon
(TOC) test as an alternative to quantify the concentration of the organic material.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD): The BOD of the sewage is the amount of oxygen
required for the biochemical decomposition of biodegradable organic matter under aerobic
conditions. The oxygen consumed in the process is related to the amount of decomposable
organic matter. The general range of BOD observed for raw sewage is 100 to 400 mg/L. Values
in the lower range are being common under average Indian cities.

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD): The COD gives the measure of the oxygen required for
chemical oxidation. It does not differentiate between biological oxidisable and non oxidisable
material. However, the ratio of the COD to BOD does not change significantly for particular
waste and hence this test could be used conveniently for interpreting performance efficiencies of
the treatment units. In general, the COD of raw sewage at various places is reported to be in the
range 200 to 700 mg/L. In COD test, the oxidation of organic matter is essentially complete
within two hours, whereas, biochemical oxidation of organic matter takes several weeks. In case
of wastewaters with a large range of organic compounds, an extra difficulty in using BOD as a
quantitative parameter is that the rate of oxidation of organic compounds depends on the nature
and size of its molecules.

Smaller molecules are readily available for use by bacteria, but large molecules and colloidal and
suspended matters can only be metabolized after preparatory steps of hydrolysis. It is therefore
not possible to establish a general relationship between the experimental five-day BOD and the
ultimate BOD of a sample, i.e., the oxygen consumption after several weeks. For sewage (with
k=0.23 d-1 at 20°C) the BOD5 is 0.68 times of ultimate BOD, and ultimate BOD is 87% of the
COD. Hence, the COD /BOD ratio for the sewage is around 1.7.

8.Toxic Metals and Compounds

Some heavy metals and compounds such as chromium, copper, cyanide, which are toxic may
find their way into municipal sewage through industrial discharges. The concentration of these
compounds is important if the sewage is to treat by biological treatment methods or disposed off
in stream or on land. In general these compounds are within toxic limits in sanitary sewage;
however, with receipt of industrial discharges they may cross the limits in municipal
wastewaters.
4.0 SEWAGE TREATMENT OBJECTIVE

1. To identify new water sources for increased water demand.

2. To find economical ways to meet increasingly more stringent discharges standard.

3. To ensure that wastewater is treated before being discharged into our rivers.

4. To provide excellent, efficient and innovative services for safe and sustainable water and
environment.

5. To help preserve the country's waste resources, protect public health and provide a
cleaner and safer environment.

6. To undertake the vital task of ensuring that Malaysians today and in the future will be
able to enjoy a clean and healthy environment through a proper and well-maintained
sewerage system.

7. To ensure the best possible performance of the sewage systems to keep the environment
clean as well as explore new opportunities.
5.0 CONCLUSION/OVERVIEW

As a conclusion, the trip to Indah Water Konsortium, Putrajaya Regional Sewerage Treatment
Plant (RSTP) which transferred to the STP-1 had given me wide exposure in various methods of
sewage treatment systems and its processes. This company was designed to identify new water
sources for increased water demand. The briefing conducted by IWK’s staff, Sir Azwan was
educational and beneficial. There were many process that I learnt such as sewage treatment
process, overall treatment process and sludge treatment process. For example, in overall
treatment process, there were started with pump sump, screen chamber, grit removal, aeration
tank and finished in secondary clarifiers. In sludge treatment process waste sludge is an end
process of all aerobic treatment, being it sludge from waste water plant or from drinking water
treatment plant. Proper operation and maintenance including charging and periodical monitoring
is required for sustainable management of decentralized domestic wastewater treatment system. I
also learn there are many types of sewage such as pour flush, individual septic tank, connected
system and pump station while types of plant such as oxidation pond, aerated lagoon and
mechanical sewage treatment plan. I hope this company can be long lasting in our country and
can be well protected by the government. It is because it have many process that can make new
water. So, it will ensure that Malaysians today and in the future will be able to enjoy a clean and
healthy environment through a proper and well-maintained sewerage system.