Authors: Nurlailah Abdillah*, Dzulkhairi Tajuddin Mustaffa, Nasehir Khan E. M. Yahaya, Anas Daud

River Basin Research Centre, National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM),Lot 5377, Jalan Putra Permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia

Corresponding author: Nurlailah Abdillah

E-mail: [email protected];  | Tel: +603-89476400

Abstract

As a developing country, Malaysia has multiplied its population and this has led to an increase of food premises such as restaurants and hawker stalls. This phenomenon has allow effluent with high contents of food waste and fat, oil and grease (FOG) being released into river system. No direct regulation towards food premises effluent discharges has lengthen this problem even further. To cooperate with this situation, an existing law required food operators to install a grease trap as a condition to obtain or renew their licence but the implementation are not thoroughly. While restaurants that have already installed with grease trap, maintenance are done poorly or none at all leaving the problem left unchecked. National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) has developed a grease trap, NAHRIM Oil and Food Waste Trap (NOFAT) in order to counter maintenance problem in grease trap and looking forward to increase its implementation among food premises. During sampling process, the effluent of four different places were examined for its FOG content in terms of loading and the findings were more appalling than expected. The average loading count of FOG from three food premises before treated with grease trap are 0.1047kgs-1. Focusing on grease trap implementation only solve parts of the problem, point source pollutions in need of an immediate assessment to include food premises and household area. All these are to promote healthier rivers and revitalise this country’s water body.

Keywords: Fat, oil and grease, grease trap, preservation of river, point source pollution, food premises effluent.