Story of Bottled Water 瓶裝水的故事

After BIGFOOTHILL visited Sungai Juru  recreation park,  I became more aware of the No Plastics Campaign around the world and in particular, my home state Penang in Malaysia. I am distressed by what I saw especially the floating empty plastic bottles flowed and trapped at the Sungai Juru river entrapment. I came across the story of bottled water from the website E-dump which have it by the side of its page.  I am interested to have this Story of Bottled Water 瓶裝水的故事 (created by Annie Leonard  who created the Story of Stuff Project) added to my blog to create the awareness and help to make Bukit Mertajam or Big Foot Hill a..k.a "Tua Shua Kha"(in Chinese Hokkien) a town in Penang to be part of the campaign to make Penang  the first green state in Malaysia.


I did not realize that I have been contributing to the pollution by being an ignorant consumer as I used to grab a bottle of bottled water at the local coffee shop for my drink as I go there to watch English Premier League(EPL) Football matches on the live television broadcast thinking that I it is safe for my health instead of drinking other drinks and that the shop will recycle the empty bottle. I use to order mineral water and the shop assistant being hired from another country could not understand 'mineral' water always ended up giving me the drinking bottled water.  Cannot blame him either as there are so many brands and type of bottled water (Reverse osmosis(RO), Minerals, Drinking and Carbonated) in the market to choose from.

The best way is to stop consuming bottled water totally from now onwards to ensure I play my part.  Let us be responsible for our action.  I urge you to share this message with our friends as we can have greater and faster impact to heal our hurting environment from this very day.

We can see many bottled water in plastic bottles with house brand being provided at hotels and restaurants for guests staying at the hotels and at the conferences and seminars at their venues. We need to get the hotels to play their parts too by offering drinking waters in stainless steel pots or tanks where we can pour or fill our own cups and glasses. There are so many other events such as wedding, birthday and house warming parties, lunch and dinners and even at funerals where the bottled water in plastic bottles or cups are being distributed.

To begin with, the Penang State government will have to ensure they take the lead and the NGOs give their full supports and actively campaign with the local community. So the government functions will also have to ensure that they stop providing drinking bottled water from January 2011 to take one step further.

We need the supermarkets, hypermarkets,convenience stores, the fast foods chains, restaurants and coffee shops to not only stop providing plastics bags from January 2011. We need them to STOP selling bottled water.  If we are made to pay twenty sen for the plastic bag on no plastic bag days, it will be fair to consumer and coffee shop to just provide a glass of drinking water at twenty sen. Easily a bottled water would cost RM1.00(Ringgit Malaysia one only) which is 400 times profit.  Would anyone of us want to buy a loaf of bread or a packet of famous Malaysia food called "Nasi Lemak" which is a Malaysian favorite breakfast food made of steamed rice in coconut milk top-up with curry anchovy and hard-boiled and garnished with cucumber slices costing 400 times more than it is worth its value?

After all, our Penang State through its state-owned company Perbadanan Bekalan Air (PBA) is known to have produced the cleanest water in Malaysia and also the cheapest tariff.   There are eatery outlets that charge RM0.50( Fifty sen) for a cup of plain drinking water as they do not provide free drinking water. The funny thing is many of us would think that the fifty sen for a cup of drinking water is expensive compared to the bottled water which is merely the packaging and advertisement that dubbed us into thinking that it is worth paying for.  The worst thing that happens is that we are being made the culprit that contributes towards the pollution of our environment by our demand for such bottled water.

Mind you, if any of us are to be careful to check on the label of the bottled water, most will realize that the drinking water source is tap water like one particular brand that came from the state of Selangor.  I did thought of making money from bottling water from tap water supplied by PBA by just getting some filters and do the reverse osmosis and shared that idea with a friend of mine as I came across a local coffee shop also had its own brand of drinking water which is sold at RM1.00. Anyway, there is the need to get the licensing and the relevant health authorities to approve it.  So it seems in Malaysia, the government has the power to enforce the law of banning such practice of bottling drinking water.

We become more aware of the environment as see these images of bottled water doing damages to our Mother Earth.

You can watch the videos on BigFootHill Video Bar on the side bar or click here for link to The Story of Bottled Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0&feature=channel

You can get more on how to help realize a green environment with Annie Leonard on the link below:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM&feature=channel

BIGFOOTHILL: Sungai Juru Recreation Park, Bukit Mertajam, Seberang Perai Tengah, Pulau Pinang

BIGFOOTHILL: Sungai Juru Recreation Park, Bukit Mertajam, Seberang Perai Tengah, Pulau Pinang, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng urged NGOs to support for state's No Plastic Bag ruling

Pollutions at Sungai Juru

Pollutants trapped at Sungai Juru

Pollutants floating and flowing into Sungai Juru

Is there fish at Sungai Juru now?

A man looking for fish and casting his net at Sungai Juru

Will Sungai Juru be a  Claass 2 river by 2015?

There are pollutions on our rivers due to  our neglect for the environment.  With rubbish going into our drains and choking our rivers, it is bound to be man made disasters happening such as flooding of residential, industrial and commercial areas that never happen before but it will happen due to accumulation over time.  Do we want to prevent flood before it happens?  I have seen the plastics and non-bio degradable objects flowing to Sungai Juru just yesterday at the recreation park.  I can see the children playground is well maintained and clean.  Is it because parents are afraid to bring the children there since Juru river was reported to be the most polluted river in Penang State.  Can we allow the contamination on the playground of our children by the riverside which are hazardous to our healths?  The Drainage and Irrigation Department (Jabatan Pengairan and Saliran or JPS) administration have targeted to covert Sungai Juru and Sungai Pinang from Class 5 to Class 2 rivers where it is clean enough for people to swim by 2015.

I saw someone was casting the net on the river Sungai Juru near the recreation park yesterday morning.  According to the JPS classification, this is a class 3 status.  The target is not impossible to achieve if only all consumers and manufacturers of packaging materials resort to the green and environmental friendly alternative of using bio-degradable materials and changing the habits of using plastic bags and foams for holding the shopping items and food stuff.  Bring your own green bags, trolleys and baskets to do sundry and stainless steel containers and tiffins for foods will help save the environment from the habit of use and discard to bring, clean and reuse.

Water bills may increase but negligible.  The thought of inconvenience of bringing your own tiffins or containers to office if office workers have been used to getting the foods in plastic bags from the nearby stalls could be the main habit that is difficult to adapt to initially.  I can remember those good old days in the 1960s and 1970s where our mothers used to prepare breakfast and lunchboxes when we go to schools or work.  We used the metal enameled plates at the school canteens for our favorite noodle soups, and fried noodles while the banana leaves for some of the Malaysian foods and desserts like curry steamed rice with anchovy and hard-boiled egg garnished with cucumber slices known as "Nasi lemak" and steamed glutinous rice with grated coconut mixed with brown sugar or known as "pulut inti" and  glutinous rice baked with pounced dried shrimps and chillies together with grated coconut or better known as "pulut udang" Rice in Malay is "Nasi" while glutinous rice in Malay is called "pulut"

We went visiting our relatives and friends at the hospital with home cooked foods on stainless steel containers, pots and tiffins.  We brought the bottles ourselves for the pharmacists at the government clinics and hospitals to contain the liquid medicines.  Today we pay and pay more bills and hospital charges for health-care. We have better medical facilities today  for treatment of illnesses and long term care but consumers are poorer as everything comes in packages and packaging.   The supply you plastic mug with toiletries nowadays if you are admitted to hospital on consultation.  Those days, we get admitted too but we or our relatives or friend will bring our own vacuum flask for warm water and own porcelain plate, bowl and cups with spoon and fork for our meals and medication.

Looking back those days meant life were much simpler with not much expectation of service from the hospital staff and consultants other than necessary help and assistance for treatments and a little comfort  for visitation by loved ones out of visiting hours who had to travel by bus or taxi or cycled from home to hospitals, and with only the objective and expectation of getting healed and out of the hospital in speed time which are in contrast to today's consumers demand for King service because we paid for it and we deserved it.  As a consumer, we are at the receiving end as the cost of medical bills increases and the cost of annual hospitalization and surgical insurance kept increasing.

Life will be much healthier and medical bills will be less expensive if we kick our unhealthy and unfriendly desire for plastics in our daily consumption and activities  which could be the sources for pollutions and toxic to our body, plastic surgeries to augment our unnatural beauty or even plastic money from the credit cards which are making us debtors.


In the nutshell, we are all in the chains of the food cycle which can be affected by the pollutants which we are reluctant to do away with because of the conveniences we enjoyed in the short-term.  Must we only be persuaded or forcibly asked to change our habits and cut on our profits because not by the authorities but by our own convictions when someone dear or loved ones are infected by diseases such as cancer and other dread diseases due to exposure to these pollutants which we happen to manufacture or make-it-happen as we use them daily for easy to carry or package our foods? Facts and statistics on cancer and other dread diseases causing pollutants are scientifically proven but we chose our own destiny to ignore it.

Bukit Mertajam People's Gymnasium

Gimnasium Rakyat Bukit Mertajam, Seberang Perai Tengah, Pulau Pinang

This is the People's Gymnasium or "Gimnasium Rakyat"  right in the middle of Bukit Mertajam Town along Arumugam Pillai Road,   It is located in the former Magistrate Court of Bukit Mertajam which have already shifted to a new premises at Betek Road

Jalan Muthu Palniappan in front of Pejabat POS Bukit Mertajam

Public Library at Bukit Mertajam

One way street at Cross-Junction of Arumugam Pillai Road and Muthu Palaniappan  Road from Sungai Rambai Road

The gymnasium is situated along with the Public Library of Bukit Mertajam which is a government building also built with Malay home style architecture about the same time as the former Magistrate Court.  I am not very familiar with the history of Bukit Mertajam as I was not a local until I become one of its residents in early 1993.
Have been to the library a few times long time ago when I just moved in.  Now I used to go the the Main Public Library at Seberang Jaya, Pulau Pinang.

I remember I entered once into the former Magistrate Court with my late father who was as curious as I was of what it was like inside back in the 1993 during an ongoing proceeding at court. Then, I was enrolled in the London External LLB course at Perkim-Goon Institute (IPG). We we required to be silent and sit upright and acknowledge our respect for the Honorable Magistrate sitting that day as we entered and were ushered to the seats for the public gallery by the police officer at the entrance.  There were no other people present at the public gallery except for the advocates and solicitors with their clients and a handfuls of the court administrative staff , Policemen and the Honorable Magistrate   We left shortly after seeing what it was like and had to again acknowledge the Honorable Magistrate on leaving the court.

General Post Office

As fate would have it, I did not become a lawyer.  Instead I am selling Professional Indemnity Insurance policies to lawyer clients.  Anyway, that was just another episode of an ambitious me to doing part-time study which was then an opportunity to enhance my career.  I will not dwell further as I have a right to remain silent.

About the gymnasium, I will have to check it out as my pot-belly is not good for belly-dance and it has been thought by many acquaintance that it is from the alcoholic drinking sessions. I do not intoxicate myself with alcoholic drinks but probably I need to have a scheduled regular exercises to keep my youthful looks and dynamic V-shape gymnast outfit which have long been a pear-shape in recent years.

The Green building on the right is Alka Ria while the high building in the centre is The Summits Hotel.  The building on the left partly obscured is General Post Office.

For now, just peering at gymnasium from outside and by the roadside in front of the General Post Office which is just a walk across the street will do. Those of you who go to Post Office monthly to pay your bills and those who like the night time famous hawker food stall "Char Koay Teow" near Alka Ria on its left will know exactly where is gymnasium.  Further to its right-side, it is the Telekom Office and the Government quarters for civil servants which is just opposite OCBC Bank.

Traffic queue at railway crossings as a goods train from Butterworth arriving

You will also not miss the Railway crossing gates cutting across the road from Jalan Sungai Rambai which is now undergoing construction works for the electrified double tracking railways systems from Butterworth to Padang Besar near the Malaysian-Thailand border town.  Just check with the Bukit Mertajam railway station on the timetable of the trains calling at the station to avoid being caught in the rush as the railway gates are closed to traffic for the trains to pass by.  

Oh yes..just reminded of one of my favorites songs "Last Train to London" by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).  I have yet to learn on the gadgets to add the music and links to articles to my blog without infringement on the copyrights and the rules.

Sungai Juru Recreation Park, Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang

 Juru River signage

Have a great day beginning with a visit to Sungai Juru Recreation Park, Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang in the morning.  Enjoying the sunshine and the breeze at the riverside park which is located along the main North-South(Butterworth - Ipoh) trunk road on the right hand-side if coming from Butterworth or on the left hand side of the trunk road if traveling from South.  It is approximately 150km on the Old Trunk road to Ipoh, Perak.  I have never had the chance to go there even though I have been passing through this riverside recreation park almost daily as most of the days were rushing to places with daily agenda.  Just two days earlier, I was passing the bridge over the river going towards Juru Auto-City highways interchange when I saw the beautiful clouds over Bukit Mertajam or "BIG FOOTHILL" that made me want to stop by at this spot again on a fine day.

Reflection of Big Foothill under the bridge

Sungai Juru Recreation Park, Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang

Green trees lining both sides of the river banks at Sungai Juru

Sungai Juru is the river that flow into the Strait of Malacca at the Penang Channel on the Mainland side of Penang State which is also know as Province Wellesley or Seberang Perai.  Seberang Perai have three Districts which are known as Seberang Perai Utara (S.P.U.), Seberang Perai Tengah (S.P.T.) and Seberang Perai Selatan(S.P.S.). It is administered by the City Council, Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Perai.

Suspension bridge

Noni plant at the river bank of Sungai Juru Recreation Park

The Sungai Juru Riverside Recreation Park is equipped with a playground for children and a foot reflexology garden.  It is also having some resting cabana like concrete structure at both sides of the river for tired feet to rest or shelter from the sun or rain.  There are wood-like concrete benches on both sides of the banks for you to take a good view and sip in the breeze while you can chat with your companions.  There were some visitors who just laid flat on the benches under the tree shades enjoying the cool windy breeze in the morning and evening. The park is supervised by the Drainage and Irrigation Department or JPS as they have a workshop cum station at the end of park on one side of the bank which is also near the Veterinary Department Office.  They have a small boat on standby to help them in their daily task.

Palm tree and stump

Rest area

It is a beautiful sight to behold if you walk to the suspension bridge which is at the end of the park which link both sides of the river banks where you can view the hills around Bukit Mertajam as you walk across the bridge.  On the other hand, let me warn you, if you have fear of water (water phobia) or of walking on ropes or suspension bridge, please do not worry as the bridge is safe as it has safety nets and metal railings guard for you to hold onto. Even a motorcyclist ride on his motorcycle on the suspension bridge to get over to the other side of the river bank to shorten his journey.

Tree resembling a Cross

Some visitors are regulars there doing some jogging and walking to stay fit and healthy. I just enjoy taking some photographs of the scenery at Park. Palm trees are also planted there as it is also the tree symbol on the Penang State flag.  There is a Noni tree with fruits and flowers too.  One green tree grew tall and its branches resembled a cross.

Noni fruits are known for its herbal and medicinal values

Having fun climbing trees

Cool Green

View of Bukit Mertajam a.k.a. Big Foot Hill from the suspension bridge

Serene view of Bukit Mertajam across the bridge linking Butterworth-Ipoh main trunk road near Bukit Minyak

Debris and rubbish flowed into and trapped in the river

Rubbish trapped underneath the suspension bridge

A beautiful sky above but the ugly reflection on the water

Can you identify the culprit?

Do you feed milk to your child or do you let the living creatures drink the polluted waters?

Our food chains depend on our habits to change for better

Washing the polluted waters or pollutant?

Think out of the box or throw out the box?

Plastics, foams and rubbish we dumped into the drains ended up into the river

Do our children deserve playground in this environment?

Recycled or already drunk?

Before the entrapment

Next time you cross the bridge, please make a wish that you love our environment and heritage. Remember Sungai Juru for Mother Earth

Come to enjoy God's gifts to Mankind and follow His steps of loving kindness

Leave footprints behind

For those who love green environments, and who dislike the sights of the flotilla of rubbish or plastic wastes or old decomposed parts of plants or human made objects, you will be upset as there are tonnes of such items floating on our drains and flowing into the river daily and trapped by the entrapment placed across the river just immediately after the suspension bridge.  The entrapment helped to trap the rubbish which are then disposed off by the JPS to minimize the pollution of water that flow into the seas and our environments.

Just by co-incident, there was this article in The Star newspapers on Saturday 13, November 2010 Nation page N21 that the Penang State Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has urged non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to speak up in supports of the no plastic bag ruling daily from January 1, 2011(see scanned page of The Star).  I was really upset when I saw not only plastics bags floating on our beautiful riverside park at Sungai Juru Recreation Park.  Here are some snapshots of ugly objects which you and me are familiar with and used daily which we need to clean up our acts.  The plastic bottles from mineral or drinking waters and soft-drinks, the plastic and foam containers used for foods packaging, the aerosol or spray cans, the cans from soft-drinks and beers, glass bottles, shoes and comb, the foam packaging for consumer goods especially for electrical goods preventing impact damages.

Although most of these plastics,foams and cans are from consumer products which are sold by reputable manufacturers with labels reminding us on helping to recycle it after use and avoid littering, most of us are not environmental friendly.  It has chain effects on all of us and the environment.  Can we stop all this by making a pledge and put in action to stop using these hazards to environment and health hazards to ourselves?  If the laws of the country do not allow the use or manufacture of these hazardous plastics, foams and pollutants, the manufacturers will have to resort to alternative packaging materials which are more environmental friendly.  Ultimately,the change in attitude of the consumers and the manufacturers are crucial to make the green environment possible in Penang, Malaysia and any parts of the Earth.

I remember those days in the Sixties(1960s) and early Seventies(1970s) when I followed my beloved departed mommy to market and we brought our own baskets made of bamboo and rattan to carry the sundry goods.  We also have our fish, prawns, meat and vegetables wrapped in old recycle newspaper or other papers.  Eggs, rice, sugars and even the charcoals were wrapped in old newspapers which were prepared in triangular shapes bags or paper bags made from brown papers.  Even the wedding dinners banquet tables were usually covered with table cloths and/or papers (Pink colored papers for weddings and white colored papers for funerals). Of course, brown paper for Chinese tile games.

Oh yes, those days, we bring our own enamel plated or stainless steel containers for carrying foods when we go the local restaurants or coffee shops to buy foods for meals and refreshments at home.  A visit to the local government clinic for treatment and medication would not be complete without bringing our own glass bottles for the liquid medicines and there were also brown or dark colored glass bottles for special prescriptions.  Steamed coconut milk rice with curry anchovy and hard-boiled egg and garnished with cucumber slices, and steamed glutinous rice with grated coconut in brown sugar  which is a type of Malaysian desserts and many other foods were wrapped in banana leaves.

Coca Cola, 7up and Fraser & Neave (F & N) soft-drinks were in glass bottles then.  The Guinness Stout and Anchor Beer were in dark brown colored bottles in three sizes. As a child, I used to collect the metal caps of these bottles to play many types of games with it. Perhaps I will tell more of the games to my own kid. The breads were in waxed paper wrappings or straight from the local bakers in paper bags and then kept in our own bread container.

Alas, changes to our present lifestyles and habits are necessary to help protect our environment and our health.  There will certainly be losses to some businesses but the economy will still grow as shrew businesses adapt to new demands.  In the past, did we compensate the glass manufacturers who make glass bottles for the soft-drinks or the clog makers who makes clogs for our foot-wears? No supply and the demand will go for the alternative source for solutions.  Therefore, the alternative solutions will have to be set in place to encourage more manufacturers to quickly change their model of business to embrace the new environmental friendly products demanded by the community. It is just sharing my personal experiences and thoughts.

God created Nature and beautiful things and living creatures like us to inherit His gifts as written in the book of Genesis in the Bible.  How do we appreciate God then?  What do we as good parents want our children to inherit from us?