Pig farmers must install expensive wastewater treatment systems to curb environmental pollution. Add this to rising costs and diseases, and alarm bells ring about pork prices and supply. Part 2 of 2.

THERE ARE many ways an interview about pigs can begin. Wong Soon Ping of Kampung Selamat, Penang showed off a whole roast duck on a baking tray. Half of it was coated in truffle powder. “I’m trying a new recipe!”

It turns out roast ducks are a new product for Soon Ping, a third-generation pig farmer who had sold his pig farm in November 2021 and now processes and distributes pork. His village is one of the two pig farming areas in the state, notorious for decades-long river pollution.

(Photo: Farms that cannot afford to modernise operations call it a day |  Pic by Lee Kwai Han)

Notorious for its river polluting pig farms, Penang is mandating its farms modernise or shut down. But pig farms might not be the only, or main polluters along the whole river. Will this mandate bring relief to the ecosystem and impacted communities? Part 1 of 2.

A STENCH drifts up the 5 metres from the river to the bridge where we are standing. A sour, nasty smell, it lingers even after we leave the site. A local says the smelly river water comes from Kampung Valdor.

Their wastewater has been tarred for impacting everything from paddy fields and fisheries to high-end residential areas. But change is in the air as pig farming legislation and regulations kick in, though it is unclear if they will actually solve river pollution.

(Photo: The polluted waterway from Kampung Selamat (right) flows into Sungai Kereh; note the healthy riverine vegetation, a sign of possible excessive nutrients  |  Pic by SL Wong)