The effectiveness of water pollution control measure at construction site

Abstract

Construction activities have gained a lot of momentum since the era of the industrial revolution. This is one of the measures taken through the provision of basic infrastructure such as housing, roads, schools, hospitals and many more. The construction industry itself has grown drastically all over the world. However, construction is one of the major contributors to environmental impacts carrying pollution risks including water pollution. Water quality is very important for economic, ecological, aesthetic, and recreational purposes. Changes in water quality may affect its aesthetic value or even prevent some uses of the water. To overcome this problem, I have came out with my research study on the effectiveness of water pollution control measure at the construction site.This study was conducted on a construction project; Bachok Hospital Construction Project located in Kelantan. This study was carried out at three different stations ; the first station (W1) identified at the workers' home area, the second station (W2) was located in the effluent silt trap and the third station (W3) was at the Melor River outlet. The parameters used in this study were including the temperature, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Turbidity, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), oil and grease, presence of E-Coli bacteria and ammonical nitrogen. All the parameters were analyzed from the collected samples taken from all three stations. From this study it was found that at W1 station (in the working house area) there was presence of E-coli , supported by the reading value exceeded the set of standard of 510 CFU / 100mL. Apart from that, for Oil and Grease reading value also high exceeded the standard of 15mg / L. For the sample results taken from station W2 (Effluent Silt Trap) there was an increased in the Turbidity reading value based on the standard set by the National Water Quality Standard (NWQS) which was 52 (NTU) and the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) reading value was also high which was 10 mg / L. From W3 Station (Sungai Melor Outlet) samples in January 2020 shown that there was high level of turbidity, Biochemical Oxygen Demand ( BOD ) , Chemical Oxygen Demand ( COD ) , Total Suspended Solid ( TSS ) with the presence of E-Coli and oil and grease exceeded the the standard set by the National Water Quality Standard (NWQS) which was 53 NTU, 23mg / L, 89 mg / L, 67mg / L, 415 CFU / 100mL and 47 µg / L respectively. All these problems were identified and it can be improved or overcome if the construction site can provide with adequate number of silt fence and check dams. In addition, proper drainage need to be installed to rapidly remove all the excess soil water to reduce or eliminate waterlogging and return soils to their natural field capacity.