PUTRAJAYA: The government is conducting in-depth research on the effects and presence of microplastics in Malaysian waters after alarming levels were found in the country's rivers, says Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof (pic).
Significant levels of microplastics, plastic particles smaller than 5mm, were found in four key river basins – the Klang and Langat Rivers in Selangor, the Kelantan River basin, as well as the Sarawak River basin.
The National Water Research Institute of Malaysia (Nahrim) found that the pollution rate ranged from 179.6 particles to as high as 4,541.4 particles per litre in parts of these basins, Fadillah said.
“The results of the research are expected to be used by all relevant stakeholders to improve water quality in Malaysia,” he said at the launching of Malaysia’s First National Microplastics Seminar 2024 here on Monday (July 15).
Nahrim's findings showed that further immediate research was necessary to uncover the possible effects microplastics and other pollutants might have on the people and environment, he added.
“This might entail the need to immediately improve our current drinking water treatment process to guarantee only the best quality water is received by the people," said Fadillah, who is also Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister.
He said the research would also look for the presence and effects of other new pollutants such as endocrine disruptors (EDCs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on water quality.
He called on seminar participants to take the opportunity and knowledge learned to spread concerns about microplastic pollution to their respective communities and the public as a whole.
"Research cannot end with just a scientific publication, it must be translated into a form that can be easily understood by the people,” he added.
Nahrim director-general Mohd Zaki Mat Amin Za said that the country’s current excessive annual usage of plastic and below-average recycling rate of only 35.38% last year posed a serious threat to the safety and health of Malaysian waters.
“As these plastics degrade, they release chemical compounds such as bisphenol A or BPA that could pose serious health risks to anything ingesting it, which will then come back to humans as we eat seafood.
“As a result, more holistic detailed research is needed to study and understand microplastics' effects on both the health of our people and our environment,” he said in his opening speech.
This concern also comes after a recent study, published by the Environmental Science and Technology journal in June, found that Malaysia ranks the highest among 109 countries in microplastics consumption with Malaysians consuming around 15g per month.
Malaysia was also among the top 10 countries that inhaled the most microplastic particles, at an estimated 494,000 microplastic particles a day (per capita), according to the study.
