Most of the batik premises are still dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Nonetheless, a conventional wastewater treatment unit is very expensive to be owned by them. Therefore, many local batik premises discharge their untreated effluents directly to the river, which can be potentially toxic and post a great threat to the environment. The government has started initiative collaboration with educational institutes to develop an affordable treatment system for batik effluents. For that reason, this study was carried out within three batik premises that were equipped with the treatment systems to evaluate their efficiencies. Each treatment system had a different approach in treating batik effluents: (1) Treatment system A started the treatment with screening (sand filtration), aeration, neutralisation (sulphuric acid), coagulation process, and activated carbon filtration; (2) Treatment system B used a similar treatment method as system A except that no coagulant was applied; and (3) Treatment system C starts with screening, neutralisation (sulphuric acid), two tanks of activated carbon filtration before going through the photodegradation process. Physical parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and colour were measured before and after treatment to determine the effectiveness. The results showed that treatment system C had the highest COD reduction of 91%, followed by treatment systems A and B. Treatment system C also achieved 86% of decolourisation, followed by treatment system A with 82%. Almost all the parameters measured from this study met the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) 1974 (Industrial Effluents) Regulations after the treatment process. The finding from this study should help with the development of any future recommendation and improvement of the treatment system for batik effluent discharges.
Crude extracts from neem, Azadirachta indica, and God's crown, Phaleria macrocarpa, were tested at two concentrations, 5% and 10% for the insecticidal activity against pineapple mealybugs, Dysmicoccus brevipes under laboratory conditions. In this study, synthetic insecticide; dimethoate and commercial neem were used as positive control while water was used as a negative control. All treatments were applied using the topical bioassay method in five replications. In 24 hours after treatment, no mortality was recorded in all treatments. Only after 48 hours, 52% and 28% mortality were recorded in the sample treated with 10% and 5% of A. indica extract. Dysmicoccus brevipes treated with 10% A. indica extract, showed 100% mortality at 72 hours while the sample treated with dimethoate reached 100% mortality at 120 hours after treatment. In conclusion, the 10% of A. indica extract showed higher potency in comparison to other treatments including dimethoate, commercial neem and P. macrocarpa extract.
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