TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

 No Matric: 2217952

TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

     Assalamualaikum everyone! This is my written reflective journal for my subject of Sustainable Development Goals and I hope everyone reading this can benefit from this topic. This subject teaches me various things about the conditions that occur in the world and there are many issues in this world in terms of environment, economy, society, education and so on. In the first week, my lecturer introduces me and my friends to the introduction to sustainable development goals. What I can understand from his lecturers, sustainable development is a process that creates growth and progress through the addition of physical. economic, environmental, and social components to improve quality of life without damaging the resources of the environment. 

As you can see in the picture above, this is the Triple  Bottom Line of Sustainable Development. I think this picture describes sustainable development in a good way for us to understand the meaning of it. Sustainable development includes four main issues: ecological sustainability, sustainable resource use, sustainable waste management and pollution prevention, and the development of a sustainable society. In addition, the triple-bottom-line concept implies the balance between three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. What is the role of that sustainability? Environmental sustainability focuses on maintaining the quality of the environment, which is necessary for conducting financial activities and the quality of life of people.

Meanwhile, social sustainability strives to ensure human rights and equality, preserve cultural identity, and respect for cultural diversity, race and religion. The last one is economic sustainability necessary to maintain the natural, social and human capital required for income and living standards. Based on the explanation above, I firmly believe that sustainable development goals can be achieved by balancing all these pillars. However, it can not be achieved easily because it has many challenges to overcome all the problems mainly related to the capacity of development. 

SUNGAI PUSU IIUM

Are you guys familiar with the place? I think all of the students at IIUM surely know this place. This is Sungai Pusu IIUM. Before starting this semester, I was always curious why my university let the river be like this. After I researched and learned from my lecturer, it happened because earthworks were carried out in one of the areas in Sungai Pusu. Widespread land exploration activities in Sungai Pusu caused the river flowing within the campus of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak near here, to become polluted when the water became shallow and filled with mud. 

Based on this problem, I learned about sustainability as a systemic issue. Sustainability is a systemic issue whereby an improvement in one part of the system can deteriorate another function. In this case, IIUM became a victim and had to bear the consequences. The river flow is now filled with mud and will get worse when heavy rain can invite flash floods and water pollution. Water pollution is a wicked problem that threatens water quality, water security, ecosystem health, and biodiversity and thus the provision of ecosystem wellbeing from local to global scales. 

Moreover, a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. From what I learned about sustainability as a systemic issue and a wicked problem in this topic, I can justify that the IIUM river can not be solved because of many factors, such as the activities carried out did not get the approval of the public, the residents disagree with land reclamation activities next to Taman Villa Bestari, and also the project is constantly delayed because there are no clear stopping rules and no right or wrong solutions. The issue was tried to be eradicated by Gombak Member of Parliament, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali when he previously held the position of Selangor Menteri Besar. However, until now, the issues are still haunting the residents even though MPS, the Gombak District, and the Land Office have done monitoring and enforcement.