The State of Penang is a major pig producing area in Peninsular Malaysia. About half of 400 000 pigs being produced in a year's time are produced on the island of Penang alone.
“Penang is a tropical, tourist island of waving palm trees located on the northwestern coast of West Malaysia, with a land area of 280 square km, most of which is hilly. The lowlands are intensively urbanized by a half million people of many races and religions (Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arab, Europeans, and many tourists). Therefore, pig production is and will continue to be constrained in Penang by geography, demography, by religions sensitivities and environmental considerations. Since 1974, pig farmers (mainly Chinese), located in urban areas and villages or when affected by area development projects, are being resettled to sites especially designated for pig production. Although there are several such sites, the two main areas are Batu Maung and Gertak Sanggul” (Fig. 9.1). “The State Government developed the total infrastructure (roads, utilities network, schools, drains, lot allocation, etc.) and other planning for the development and maintenance of these intensive pig production.” (Taiganides, 1979). A third rather big settlement is Pantai Acheh, in the west coast of Penang Island.
The pigs are exported to most of the states of Peninsular Malaysia. An assessment of 1978 accounts for 52 individual farms with a total of 11 000 pigs in Batu Maung and 11 smaller pig farms with a total of 4 350 pigs in Gertak Sanggul, both in the south of the island, and 26 farms with 1 300 pigs at Pantai Acheh on the west coast. In Batu Maung, pig waste is washed to public drains. Due to the high content of settleable solids in the waste water, the low gradiant of some of the public drains, and the tidal fluctuations at end of the drain, waste solids have settled out in the drain, thus clogging it. Clogging has created serious public nuisance and waste disposal problems. In Gertak Sanggol, pig waste waters is discharged into both a creek and concrete public drains which lead to the bay turning a wide area of the river and bay into septic, black sea-water, and resulting in deposits of undigested feed additives on the shore. At Pantai Acheh, the waste is discharged onto the waste land adjacent to the farms, ultimately polluting the closeby shore.
This is a report of a mission to the Island of Penang, State of Penang, Malaysia, at the request of the UNDP Regional Representative to inspect the waste disposal problems in Penang Island, and to determine and describe solution possibilities.
A first mission to define the waste disposal problems in Penang had been undertaken at the request of the UNDP Regional Representative in January 1979 by Dr. P. Taiganides, Project Manager of UNDP Project on Animal Waste Management and Utilization in Singapore, accompanied by Mr. K. Satrap, UNDP Regional Representative, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The Government of Penang is interested in an action programme. Once preliminary studies are completed and a decision is made on a system, the system could be constructed and evaluated by the staff involved in the development of the system. However, it requires that funding for the completion of a pilot project is guaranteed and is included in the project budget.
It would require additional discussions with the Government and at least one more inspection trip to determine the exact number of man-months of expertise, the nature of the expertise needed from the donor side, the budget for the purchase of equipment, their installation and construction in a pilot facility. Some of these depend on what the Government could provide in terms of land, and counterpart staff and also on the project management (donor and Penang), which will coordinate the Project. It would be best that the Project Management be in a position to proceed with construction and have easy access to all government agencies concerned with the problem.
It is envisioned that engineering expertise (agriculture-cum-environmental) plus consultantships in specialized treatments, in fisheries, in hydrography, would be essential to the Project.
The facts and findings as well as suggestions by P.E. Taiganides1 for solutions alternatives given in his mission duty travel report were taken into consideration in this Mission's report.
During the FAO Aquaculture Review Mission2 to Malaysia in February 1979, the integration of aquaculture as a component to animal waste management had also been discussed and recommended. It was stressed that the possibility of putting up a pilot study on integrated aquaculture-cum-animal husbandry such as that started by the Penang Agriculture Department would be considered for the future.
Further to the statement of the Taiganides' report, the Aquaculture Mission pointed out that based on developed technology being developed in the country, the use of aquaculture should be considered as one component to a multi-disciplinary project proposed to be carried out in the pig production centres in rural development schemes. Though the integration of aquaculture with agriculture and animal husbandry is not new in the country, it has not prospered to consequential levels. The Mission called the attention of the Government in this regard, pointing out that, if desirable, a project proposal could be formulated on this subject at a later stage. The initial work which was being started by the Agriculture Department in Penang was noted and could be a start for such a project.
