Chemical composition of rainwater harvested in East Malaysia

Fazillah Abdullah, Siti Nor; Ismail, Azimah; Juahir, Hafizan; Ahmad, R Badlishah; Lananan, Fathurrahman; Hashim, Noor Muzlinda; Ariffin, Nadiana; Zali, Munirah Abdul; Tengku Mohd, Tengku Azman; Hussin, Md Hafriz Fikrie; Mahmood, Raja Intan Sariah Raja; Jamil, Jef Rizal Abdul; Desa, Safari Mat

doi:.0..

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4491/eer.2020.508

Chemical composition of rainwater harvested in East Malaysia

Siti Nor Fazillah Abdullah¹, Azimah Ismail^1,2^†, Hafizan Juahir¹, R Badlishah Ahmad³, Fathurrahman Lananan¹, Noor Muzlinda Hashim^1,4, Nadiana Ariffin^1,5, Munirah Abdul Zali⁶, Tengku Azman Tengku Mohd⁵, Md Hafriz Fikrie Hussin⁵, Raja Intan Sariah Raja Mahmood^1,5, Jef Rizal Abdul Jamil⁷, and Safari Mat Desa⁸

¹East Coast Environmental Research Institute, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Gong Badak Campus, 21300 Terengganu, Malaysia
²East Coast Environmental Research Institute, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Gong Badak Campus, 21300 Terengganu, Malaysia
³School of Computer & Communication Engineering, c/o School of Manufacturing Engineering Complex, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Pauh Putra Campus, 02600 Arau, Perlis
⁴Muadzam Shah Polytechnic, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26700, Muadzam Shah, Pahang, Malaysia
⁵Kuala Terengganu Polytechnic, Jalan Sultan Ismail, 20200, Kuala Terengganu. Terengganu, Malaysia
⁶Environmental Health Division, Department of Chemistry Malaysia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Jalan Sultan, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
⁷Integrated Envirotech Sdn. Bhd., Lot 32-2, Jalan Setiawangsa 11A, Taman Setiawangsa, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
⁸River Basin Research Center, National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), Jalan Putra Permai, 43300, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia

Corresponding Author: Azimah Ismail ,Tel: +09-6688085 , Email: azimahismail@unisza.edu.my

Received: September 15, 2020; Accepted: February 9, 2021.

ABSTRACT

As part of the implementation of a rainwater harvesting system as an alternative water source supply for non-potable use, therefore the characteristic of chemical compounds was significantly explored. The Department of Chemistry, Malaysia, gave the data set for three years (2017-2019). Some chemometric techniques, including PCA, were performed to identify the dimensionality of the rainwater data, hence establishing the rainfall index's purity to determine the quality of rainwater in the study area. Discriminant analysis managed to differentiate each rain gauge station. Cluster analysis was then applied to perform smaller group of rain gauge stations. The result demonstrates that sea salt, secondary aerosols, trace metals, crustal origin, and organic acid dominated the dimensionality of rainwater data with a total variance of 53.38% and indicated that the PRI was significantly diversified into good purity of rainfall index (GPRI), (Labuan and Danum Valley), moderate purity of rainfall index (MPRI), (Kuching and Tawau) and bad purity of rainfall index (BPRI), (Kota Kinabalu and Bintulu). From the study, it can be stipulated that the chemical composition of rainwater in the study area was attributable to the local activities.

Keywords: Chemical composition | Chemometric | non-potable | Principal component analysis | Rainwater harvesting