Urban Quality
Summary
HOW TO ENRICH THE QUALITY OF YOUR
CITY
Case: Urban Quality Management in Kuala Lumpur
One of the cities that I
observed during my course is Kuala Lumpur. As the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur city managers face grave challenges in managing the metropolis.
ISSUES OF URBAN QUALITY
IN KUALA LUMPUR REGION
Urbanization in Malaysia is
nevertheless, very rapid growth. KL is the focus of employment opportunities
and as a result, rural-urban migration is fueling the growth of KL. The negative impact of urbanization: poor living
conditions associated with squatter settlements; under supply of waste disposal
facilities and portable water; air pollution and high lead levels in exhausts
are already generating health hazards in KL; and water pollution.
CURRENT STANDARDS
Some standard to measure
the urban quality are (a) Malaysia Urban Quality Life Index (MUQLI); (b)
Quality of Life; (c) Water Quality (Sewerage Management); (d) Air Quality.
(a) MUQLI
Malaysia defines a measurement call MUQLI (Malaysia Urban Quality Life Index). Some
basic area of the MUQLI are working life, housing, transport &
communication, health, education, social participation, income &
distribution, culture & leisure, family life, environment and public
safety.
(b)Quality of Life
Selected indicators of
quality of life are life expectancy (in years), infant mortality rate/1000,
population/doctor ratio, literacy rate (%), telephones/1000 population,
utilities such as pipe water (% of population) and electricity (% of
households).
Selected
Indicator of Qualitty Life [1]) table 1
(c)Water Quality
To monitor the quality
of water, the government of Malaysia set up a standard based on the Interim River Water Quality. To control the
level of pollution in the waterways, 2 effluent standards: (i) Standard A – for
upstream of water catchments; (ii) Standard B – for downstream of water
catchments. Effluent standards set as Absolute Standards. In design, an Average
Standards much lower than the limits as on the table 2.
(d) Air Quality
5 (five) major
pollutants measured such as particulate matters (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2),
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O3). The ambient of air
quality show on the table 3.
Some actions have been taken also to solve some of the challenges, such
as establishment of regulations aimed at maintaining green areas, expanded and
preservation of water resources in Wetland Areas, development of low cost
housing, building new towns to balance development such as Putra Jaya township,
development of e-government such as in Subang Jaya and strengthened partnership
between the government and private sector in Shah Alam City (Selangor
Development Corporation).
[1]Yogeesvaran, K., Principal Assistant Director Macroeconomic and Evaluation Section, Economic
Planning Unit – Prime Minister’s Department Putrajaya, “Malaysia’s Economic Development", presented 20 September 2002 at INTAN.
[2] Include mobile phones
[3] Universal coverage in urban areas
[4] Universal coverage in urban areas
