You’ve heard how the Malaysian government pat itself at the back after the Human Development Report 2006 puts the country on par with the developed world. A Wikipedian has produced a map to put it into global perspective:
Green is considered developed, yellow as developing while red signifies underdeveloping countries.
Within Southeast Asia, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia are considered as the only developed countries in Southeast Asia. Though I don’t mind Singapore, the inclusion of Brunei and Malaysia does make me frown a bit. Nevertheless, sweet.
Before you jump around patting yourself at the back, the report mentions the state of water pollution in Malaysia (*.pdf):
Water quantity is not the only benchmark indicator for scarcity. Quality also has a bearing on the volume available for use—and in many of the most stressed water basins quality has been compromised by pollution. All of India’s 14 major river systems are badly polluted. In Delhi, to take one example, 200 million litres of raw sewage and 20 million litres of waste are dumped into the Yamuna River every day. In Malaysia and Thailand water pollution is so severe that rivers often contain 30—100 times the pathogen load permitted by health standards.
