PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING PROGRAM
This program began as the Rural Environmental Sanitation Program in 1963 to reduce the incidence of communicable diseases associated with poor environmental sanitation, through community-based projects. The main activities were provision of safe water supply systems and construction of sanitary pour-flush latrines in rural villages. Villages in areas with good clean water sources from mountain streams were provided with gravity-feed systems while those in coastal areas were supplied with rain-water storage tanks. About 95% of the rural population has since been provided with safe water supplies and sanitary latrines. A more holistic concept for village improvement was introduced in 1997 and up till the end of 2001, 111 villages have adopted the "Healthy Village Concept" and are implementing various projects to improve their overall environment. The National Drinking Water Quality Surveillance program was introduced in 1986 to monitor the quality of all treated public water supply systems in urban and sub-urban areas in Sarawak. Surveillance activities are jointly carried out by personnel from the local health office and the respective water purveyor. Increasing concern for the state of the environment has led to the setting up of the Environmental Health Protection Unit under the Public Health Engineering Program. Greater emphasis will be placed on the investigation of open burning, monitoring of indoor air quality in Ministry of Health facilities, vetting of environmental health impact assessment reports, investigation of public complaints on emission and water pollution, and conducting research on environmental health. Radiation safety is another component under this program. It is concerned with protection against ionizing and non-ionizing radiation from equipment such as X-ray machines, telecommunication towers, electricity high-tension power lines and so forth.
e-mail us at shd@sarawak.health.gov.my
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