KLANG, July 15 — Industrialists have been warned to be more responsible in managing toxic and scheduled waste, or brace for the possibility of facing the maximum legal punishment.
Environment and Water Minister Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man issued the warning following the discovery of more than 1,000 drums and ‘jumbo bags’ suspected to contain oil and rubber sludge as well as pigment and other toxic waste illegally dumped at a site close to one hectare in size along Jalan Sijangkang Utama, Johan Setia here, yesterday.
“The two parcels of land were raided by the Selangor Department of Environment (DOE) based on intelligence gathering over the past one month. A preliminary investigation found that the site has been operating for the past three months during the Movement Control Order period.
“DOE Selangor is sampling all the waste to be analysed by the Chemistry Department to determine the type of waste, besides collecting evidence to track down and prosecute the irresponsible parties,” he said during a press conference after inspecting the illegal waste disposal site, today.
Also present were Selangor State Environment, Green Technology, Science, Technology and Innovation and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Hee Loy Sian, the Environment and Water Ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang and DOE director-general Norlin Jaafar.
Tuan Ibrahim stressed that DOE will never compromise with any acts of pollution and expressed confidence that the irresponsible parties would be traced and prosecuted under the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
For example, he said, for offences under Section 34B of the Environmental Quality Act, the accused could be sentenced to mandatory imprisonment and fined up to half a million ringgit upon conviction.
At the same time, Tuan Ibrahim said the ministry had received good cooperation from the Selangor State Government to track down the owners of land for action to be taken against them.
Meanwhile, Hee said the location used for the illegal toxic waste disposal was registered as agricultural land, and the two owners of the land had been identified.
“What happened here is the land usage terms have been violated. Therefore, Notice 7A under Section 127 of the National Land Code 1965 has been issued to the owners involved and they must be prepared for the land to be confiscated if there is no response from both parties within a month from the date of the notice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tuan Ibrahim said the government was in the process of building five ‘integrated waste facilities’ in Johor, Perak, Terengganu, Sabah and Penang to ensure that scheduled waste could be managed better and more carefully.
When asked why Selangor did not get such a facility despite the state’s growing industrial sector, he said industrialists could take advantage of the scheduled waste disposal centre in Negeri Sembilan, as it was not too far.
He said that the absence of a scheduled waste disposal centre in a state is no excuse for the existence of illegal chemical waste disposal sites, and only reflected the attitude of industrialists or waste transporters who did not care about the environment.
— Bernama
