Wastewater Treatment Plant for Sarawak River

‘Wastewater management system ready in 2012’

Borneo Post

by Peter Sibon. Posted on October 24, 2010, Sunday


KUCHING: The RM530 million Phase I of the Kuching City Wastewater Management System is expected to be completed by end of 2012, disclosed its project director Tai Lee Yoon.

ARTIST’S IMPRESSION: The proposed wastewater treatment plant located near Zecon Toll Plaza, Kuching.


He said once completed, the wastewater treatment plant near Zecon Toll Plaza would be able to process both the black and grey water from the city’s main centre.


(Black water refers to waste water from septic tanks while grey water refers to water discharge from kitchens, bathrooms and wash areas).


“It is hoped that after the phase I project is completed, many ‘environmentally dead’ rivers like Sg Padungan, Sg Bintangor and Sg Maong would be rehabilitated and would be able to support marine life,” Tai said at a briefing on Kuching Wastewater Management System at the project site near Zeacon Toll Plaza here yesterday. He said currently the project is “half way completed”.


Tai said once completed, the massive underground tunnel would have a total length of 64.4 km with a depth of between 6 and 27 metres (at the intake point where the waste treatment will be treated at the wastewater treatment plant).


“The whole project will be able to cater for 100, 000 population equivalent (PE) and is designed to last until 2030,” he said, adding that the project needs to be expanded once the population increases in future.


Under Phase I, only the densely populated areas of Kuching city are covered, from Satok, Wisma Saberkas right up to Padungan area. It will include housing areas, commercial centres and hotels.


“While our black water is partially treated in our septic tanks, our grey water is discharged directly to our drains without any treatment. In fact our grey water is more harmful to the rivers than the black water,” stressed Tai.


Tai explained that the conventional septic tank only partially treats black water from the toilets as it primarily serves as a sedimentary tank.


The treatment removes only about 40 per cent of the pollutants.


“It does not remove any nutrient or bacteria which are commonly found in black water,” he said.


Tai said if the Kuching city wastewater treatment system is not undertaken now, Sarawak River would be environmentally dead by 2020.


He stressed that once Phase I is completed, the project would be continued to include other parts of the city.


“We must protect our water resources against pollution. Our rivers must not be polluted because they are the precious source of our drinking water. Rivers are also places for recreation,” added Tai.


The Centralised Sewerage System will collect and treat both black and grey water to standard A, which could be treated for drinking water.


However, the solidified wastes would be treated at the Mambong Waste Management Landfill.


The massive project is undertaken by Nishimatsu of Japan and a local diversified group Hock Seng Lee.


Tai disclosed that each Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) cost between RM5 million to RM10 million per unit. Some 100 Swinburne engineering students also attended the briefing.

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Cyber-Tyranny or Cyber Stupidity?

from themalaysianinsider.com

Anti-tower Facebook page block is own fault, not censorship

 
By Zurairi Abd Rahman
October 21, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Facebook has been accused of censorship by the owners of a Facebook page dedicated against the proposed 100-storey skyscraper by Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNB).

“While new media offers room for social movements, the authoritarian governance by the Internet giants like Facebook has sunk to a new form of censorship,” bursts one of the creators in a report earlier by Malaysiakini, setting off incendiary reactions from the Malaysian Twitter community.

Despite allegations of “cyber-tyranny”, the block may have less to do with censorship but more to do with its meteoric rise.

Started the day after the Budget 2011 speech by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the fan page now sports 36,843 fans of likeminded Malaysians at the time of writing, and swelling still.

The page administrators have been barred from posting new content yesterday — a pop-up states “Your publishing rights have been blocked due to a violation of the Pages Terms of Use”.

Facebook users can still “like” the fan page, and access to it has not been obstructed in any way.

The owners claim to be victimised, but a quick look at the Terms & Conditions page for Facebook Fan Page reveals that “Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organisation or endeavour”.

Put simply, a fan page may only represent a specific brand or organisation, none of which is represented by the “1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower” page.

A look at the help page on “Warnings” also suggests that the owners might be blocked from posting any contents since they might have sent messages “at a rate that is likely to be abusive”, or spamming.

Lately, Facebook also has gone on an exercise to convert generic and unofficial fan pages that rakes up thousands of fans to community pages. Community pages concentrate on topics which are discussed by a lot of people, and won’t be maintained by a single author.

If this is why the fan page was blocked, the solution to the block would be as simple as verifying themselves as legitimate owner of the page to Facebook, thus making it “official”.

In any case, Facebook states that a block will be temporary, and lasts between a few hours to a few days. Any attempts to use the blocked feature will only result in a longer block.

The 100-storey tower protesters would do best to keep their calm, and be patient.

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Tasmanians Impressed with Sarawakians Logging Practice

The logjam incident caused a bad name to the Sarawak timber industry.  'They' claimed that we are not ethical in managing our resources especially the logging activity. 

 

Here we have the Tasmanian coming up to see for themselves if we managed our forest badly.  

To my surprise, they were impressed with our forest management and logging practice.  Below is the report published in the local newspapers.

 

Tasmanian govt on mission to Sarawak
Utusan Borneo
by Zoee Hillson. Posted on October 19, 2010, Tuesday

KUCHING: The Tasmanian government is on a fact-finding mission as part of an effort to refute allegations by environmentalist against Ta Ann Holdings Berhad’s operations in the Tasmania, Australia.

FACT FINDING: Harriss (right) in a discussion with Awang Tengah (centre) and Len Talif after the courtesy call at Wisma Sumber Alam.

Member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council Andrew Paul Harriss said yesterday that allegations by some environmental groups against Ta Ann were scathing and unreasonable.

He also said the allegations were damaging to Ta Ann and the state’s timber industry as a whole.

“It’s fair to say that some environmental groups in Tasmania have been unreasonable and too critical of Ta Ann and they have tried to bring that back to forest practices in Sarawak.

“We seek to rebut that allegation based on proper information gathering and proper technical assessment,” he said when met by reporters after paying a courtesy call on Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan at Wisma Sumber Alam here.

Harriss added that this was his third visit to the state to gain an insight intoTa Ann’s credibility and performance.

“So, we have a delegation here to understand exactly what Ta Ann logging practices are like in Sarawak and also the broader operation industry in Sarawak,” Harriss said.

“Ta Ann is a credible organisation and an organisation of integrity. I’m satisfied with that and this trip is just an upgrading of knowledge on the ongoing operations.

“We are satisfied with Ta Ann’s operations in the past and the information we gather this time confirms that satisfaction.”

He said they were very impressed with Ta Ann’s operations in Tasmania and added that the forest industry was the state’s fundamental economic driver.

“They’re employing many Tasmanians in the local community and 10 per cent of our total workforce in Tasmania is employed in the forest industry operations,” Harriss said.

He also said Tasmania was opening a wide opportunity for the forest industry operators from around the world, including from Sarawak.

VicForests director Robert Patrick Smith, Ta Ann Tasmania director David Riley and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) chief executive officer Datu Len Talif Salleh were also present during the courtesy call.

 

 

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iPad Get Extra Solid Touch

SolidMicro’s New iPad Battery/Case

SolidMicro Co have announced a new large-capacity iPad case-cum-external battery to be available for preorder starting today. It’s a full cover that protects the iPad from scratches and some drops, has a 6000mAh battery (2.4 times the size of the one onboard the iPad!), and has as miniscule a profile as possible in order to preserve the sleek look of your Apple device.

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Hackers Threat Growing in Britain

Terrorism and cyber attacks are key threats to Britain, 
Britain faces an increased threat from terrorism, cyber attack and small-scale wars, a National Security Strategy will say.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Oct 2010

The document will also highlight the threat from cyber attacks on government infrastructure Photo: CLARE KENDALL


The security and intelligence services and counter-terrorism police are to escape major cuts in this week’s public spending review due to the threats.


The strategy is a key precursor for the Strategic Defence and Security Review, to be published tomorrow, which will explain how Britain will defend itself against such attacks.

It will also form the basis for spending decisions to be announced this week, including a £500 million boost to cyber defence, sources told The Daily Telegraph.

“The security strategy will look at the issues we are going to face in coming years and the spending review will look at how to deliver that,” one source said. The security strategy is expected to outline four key threats to Britain.

The primary threat remains al-Qaeda in Pakistan and its associates in Somalia, Yemen and North Africa, who continue to plan attacks against targets in Britain, the security strategy will say.

That is likely to mean that MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command will escape the worst of the cuts. But the document will also highlight the threat from cyber attacks on government infrastructure.

While not naming individual states, GCHQ, which is responsible for cyber defence, has been concerned for some time that states such as China and Russia are unlikely to use conventional or nuclear weapons in an attack on Britain and are more likely to attempt to shut down essential systems used to run the country.

Similar attacks have been seen when Russia has been in disputes with Estonia and Georgia, leading to problems with their internet and even cash machines.

A third risk that will be highlighted is the threat of small-scale wars in foreign countries that may escalate out of control, drawing in neighbouring countries and creating havens for terrorists.

That threat is likely to have a major bearing on the defence review tomorrow, which is likely to emphasise the need for mobile forces involving a combination of aircraft carriers and special forces.

The fourth element will be the risk from natural disasters such as pandemic flu, where strategies have been developed over recent years.

Iain Lobban, the head of GCHQ, said in a speech last week that the Government was receiving 20,000 malicious emails a month, of which 1,000 were deliberate attacks.

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Root Your Droid using SuperOneClick Rooter!

DROID one-click rooter, SuperOneClick

by Matthew Billy on October 15, 2010

If you’re a Droid user, you are most likely familiar with the various “one-click” rooting tools we have had come and go. SuperOneClick is now the latest and greatest rooting method for Android phones. The program essentially works via adb-commands, without having the Android SDK installed. So what makes this any differen’t from the other one-clicks? Unlike the others, any Windows user can run this quick root and there needs to be no knowledge of SDKs. I have tested it out on my DROID 1, as well as DROID X, and it has worked great!

Do you want to try this method out for yourself? Follow the break to droid-life’s step by step guide.

Basic Instructions:
(Remember, Everythingandroid.org, and it’s writers are not responsible for any damage that could occur to your phone from following the instructions in this article.)
1.  Download the latest SuperOneClick.zip file to your Windows computer.  Find it here.
2.  Extract the files from the .zip file into a new folder on your PC.
3.  Plug your phone in to your PC and turn on USB debugging.
Settings>Applications>Development>USB Debugging
4.  Open the folder with the SuperOneClick contents and double click “SuperOneClick.exe”.
5.  Allow the process to run and enjoy being rooted.

If you have any questions, comments, or problems with this root method, let us know below!

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4G Signal in Malaysia!

October 15, 2010 10:07 AM

Only Nine Telcos Get 4G Apparatus Assignments For Time Being, Says MCMC 

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

CYBERJAYA, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- The government has not assigned the 4G spectrum to any telecommunication company as yet but had merely given apparatus assignments (AA) to nine telcos to pave the way for the early adoption of the long-term evolution (LTE) or 4G technology mobile services, said Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Chairman Tan Sri Khalid Ramli.

 

Citing that there was a difference between AA and Spectrum Assignments (SA), he said MCMC only awarded the AA for them to use the 2600MHz spectrum band to roll out their 4G wireless broadband services and had not given them the Spectrum Assignment (SA).

"The decision to award to the nine telcos was made after a lengthy consultative and deliberation process with various technical groups which started about two years ago. It was not something which was done a month ago," he told Bernama.

Khalid said the nine telcos, which had been picked based on their experience, technological capability in promoting innovation and financial strength, had been asked to submit detailed business plans by year-end on what they planned to do.

An apparatus assignment confers rights on a company to use the spectrum to operate a network facility of a specified kind at a specified frequency or in any specified frequency band or bands.

4G, which refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless technology standards, is the successor to 3G and 2G families of standards. 4G technology can deliver 100 Mbps or megabits per second, which allows a music album to be downloaded as fast as five seconds or an hour-long TV show in about 30 seconds.

The companies that had been awarded the AA by MCMC include existing 3G and WiMAX players, and a new entrant. They are Celcom Axiata Berhad, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, U-Mobile Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, RedTone Marketing Sdn Bhd, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd and Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd.

Khalid said MCMC may award the SA if it was satisfied with the business plan and service readiness of the telcos in installing their equipment and services.

These companies were also required to pay annual fees to MCMC in order to use the AA to roll out their 4G services and would not receive grants of any kind from MCMC or from the Universal Service Provision (USP) Fund, which was specifically for developing communications facilities in the rural areas, he explained.

"If they want a piece of action, they will actually have to pay for it," he said, adding that the government would consider giving the SA later on if they could prove their capability.

"We may decide on that later on. In the past, we did allocate the spectrum at a much higher fee. This stage hasn't come as yet (for 4G)," he said in likening MCMC as the regulator and custodian of the Malaysian spectrum.

Khalid also said the government may decide to take back the spectrum if some companies did not perform up to expectations.

Asked why MCMC had decided to award the AA to nine telcos instead of only few like the current market leaders in the country, for example, Khalid said this was based on the need for greater transparency and competition.

Under the provisions of the Communication and Multimedia Act, he said MCMC had to act for the long-term benefit of end-users while taking on a technology-neutral approach.

On why MCMC was initiating 4G technology now while some telcos had yet to provide the full range of 3G or WiMAX technology services, Khalid explained that the regulator was planning for the future.

At certain times in Kuala Lumpur, network congestion occurred due to sharp demand and MCMC had to start work on 4G now to avoid a breakdown in services later, he said.

"It is time to migrate to something better," he stressed.

-- BERNAMA

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