Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has discovered an underground water source called Nadi Bumi on its Johor Bahru campus. That said, what should you know about it?
For your information, the discovery of a water source within the UTM Recreational Forest area allows the construction of a rock aquifer well capable of producing up to a million litres of clean water every day.
This project makes UTM the first university in Malaysia to develop an aquifer system on its own campus
This project is led by a team of transdisciplinary researchers from UTM, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), as well as industry partners and has received official approval from the Johor State Executive Council. The excavation work, which began in 2021, took between 5 and 6 months.
The study was carried out with a combination of geological, geophysical, hydrogeological and geomatics expertise, so that the water source was successfully found at a depth of 158 meters in gabbro rock. Rainwater that was originally acidic seeps through gabbro rocks, becoming alkaline and rich in minerals such as magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. However, water treatment is still carried out to ensure safety, especially to reduce iron content.
With a development cost of only around RM200000, this aquifer is capable of meeting the daily needs of over 7000 campus residents, and has the potential to support up to 100000 people for drinking and cooking purposes.
This success proved important when there was a water crisis due to pollution of the Johor River, when the well became an alternative source for students and staff. UTM described this success as something very extraordinary because the probability of finding an aquifer in hard rock in hilly areas is very low.
UTM sees this project as a research translation model that has a direct impact on society, thus contributing to the security of the country’s water resources.
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