Eutrophication has become a worldwide aquatic environments problem. Its occurrence has significantly reduced the water quality such as increase the cost of purification, possible lethal effect of algal toxins on drinking water and etc. This phenomenon is triggered by enrichment of the nutrients such as phosphorus in the water bodies. The phosphorus input to the water environment has been partly attributed by the untreated or poorly treated sewage. Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) process, mediated chiefly by Polyphosphate-Accumulating Organisms (PAOs), is a cost-efficient and sustainable method to remove phosphorus from sewage. It has been widely adopted by wastewater treatment plants in developed countries to remove phosphorus from sewage. In Malaysia, as phosphorus is not regulated in the present Environment Quality (Sewage and Industrial Effluents) Regulation, the sewage treatment plants are still largely based on conventional activated sludge process which mainly removes organic carbonaceous material. In this study, the presence of PAOs in the conventional activated sludge processes of three local sewage treatment plants (STPs) is investigated by applying Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH) method. Subsequently, a lab-scale EBPR sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is developed by using activated sludge from a STP as seed. The required time to establish the EBPR system is being observed. Functionality and performance of the lab-scale EBPR system are monitored by analyzing the profile of TOC, PO₄^-P, MLSS,and MLVSS for each cycle.