Assessment of environmental impacts due to deforestation on human health in Puncak Alam / Nur Diyana Shaharuddin

Introduction: The increasing rate of deforestation activities in Malaysia has become an alarming issue as it lead to the rising output and a main contribution of accumulated pollution. The objective for this study is to evaluate the impact of deforestation towards the environment and human health in Puncak Alam area. Methodology: Lake water was tested to identify the impact of deforestation to the selected lakes of which a total of 120 samples were collected. Wetpond 10 and 11 is located near to construction activities (deforested area), whereas Wetpond 9 and 3 is located far from the construction activities (non-forested area). Two analyses done for this study are physical and chemical analysis. Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe) were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), while pH meter, turbidimeter, dissolved oxygen meter and conductivity meter were used to measure pH, temperature, turbidity (NTU), dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity and conductivity. Data obtained were then analyzed using SPSS. While health impact assessment were done by using to the available questionnaire. Results: Results obtained shows no violation except for turbidity (22 NTU) when it is compared with National Water Quality Standrds for Malaysia (5 NTU). The independent T­-test showed a significant (p<0.05) in the water quality between forested and non-forested area except for conductivity (p>0.05). The correlation test showed a negative strong significant correlation between pH and Fe (p<0.05, r=-0.911) in deforested area, conductivity and Fe (p<0.05, r=-0.917) in deforested area and TDS and Fe (p<0.05, r=-0.858) in deforested area. There is positive strong significant correlation between conductivity and Cu (p<0.05, r=0.802) outside deforested area. From the health impact assessment on water quality (p<0.01,/=7.143),