Urban Quality

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 in Malaysia, is Kuala Lumpur City. As the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 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. 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;

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 Quality Life

NO.	AREA	1970	1990	2001
1	Life expectancy (in years): . Male . Female	61.6 65.6	68.9 73.5	70.3 75.2
2	Infant mortality rate/1000	39.4	13.0	7.9
3	Population/Doctor ratio	4,302	2,581	1,445
4	Literacy rate (%)	58	85	94
5	Telephones/1000 population	17	131	512
6	Utilities: . Pipe water (% of population) . Electricity (% of households)	48 44	80 80	93

(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 below table.

Parameter	Standards A		Standards B
	Absolute	Average	Absolute	Average
BOD5 mg/L	20	10	50	20
SS mg/L	50	20	100	40

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 below:

No.	Pollutants	Averaging Time	Ppm	ug/m3
1	Ozone	1 hour 8 hours	0.10 0.06	200 120
2	Carbon Monoxide	1 hour 8 hours	30 9	35 10
3	Nitrogen Dioxide	1 hour 8 hours	0.17 0.04	320
4	Sulfur Dioxide	10 minutes 1 hour 24 hours	0.19 0.13 0.04	500 350 105
5	TSP	241 hour 1 year		200 90
6	PM 10	24 hours 1 year		150 50
7	Lead	3 months		1.5

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)

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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