Environmental Management Case

1. INTRODUCTION

The term environment refers to an organization’s natural and human surroundings. An organization’s environment extends from within the organization itself to the globalsystem, and includes air, water, land, flora, fauna, as well as human beings (ISO 14001, 2004). The issue of the environment is increasingly becoming a focus and great concern to the world leaders, environmentalists, stakeholders, and the general public. An environmental policy statement expresses a commitment to the implementation and maintenance of an organization’s environmental management system and the improvement of its overall environmental performance. An environmental policy should also emphasize the need to prevent pollution and to comply with all relevant legal and other requirements.In general, an environmental policy should be used to generate environmental objectives and targets, and should act as a general framework for action (ISO 14001,2004). A policy is a document that outlines what a government is going to do and what it can achieve for the society as whole. A law in the other hand, is a system of rules passed by the government which must be obeyed by all. In addressing the environmental issues and problems, Government of Malaysia has passed important environmental policies and laws such as National Forestry Policy 2002, National Agricultural Policy (1992 - 2010), National Policy on Biological Diversity and National  Coastal Zone Management Policy, Environment Quality Act and its Regulations 1989, Protection of Wildlife Act, National Forestry Act 1984 and others  in order to attain sustainable environment and development in the country.

1. OBJECTIVE

The objectives of our case study are as following:

1. To acknowledge the environmental issues involving environmental degradations.
2. To acknowledge the policies which were amended and implemented by the government or authorities in order to curb the environmental problems.
3. To acknowledge the effectiveness of the policies implemented by the government and the authorities to help the environmental recovery.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Rapid economic growth and the concurrent exploitation of natural resources have resulted in environmental challenges. The environmental degradations caused by development activities can be categorized into water pollution, deforestation, non-renewable resources depletion and coastal erosion.

        3.1         Water Pollution

Malaysia receives an average annual rainfall of 3000 mm. Water resources development has been a catalyst for the socio-economic development of the country during the past decades. Dams and kilometres of pipelines and canals divert water from rivers to sustain domestic, industrial and agricultural needs. Lately, the water situation for the country has changed from one of relative abundance to one of scarcity (PentasFlora.com,2013). Population growth, urbanization, industrialization and the expansion of irrigated agriculture are imposing rapidly growing demands and pressures on the water resources, besides contributing to the rising water pollution. According to Malaysia Environment Quality 2004, the Department of Environment has recorded 17991 water pollution point sources where dominated by sewage treatment plants (54%), manufacturing industry (38%), animal farms (5%) and agro-based industries (3%).