SG PETANI – Sg Petani Persatuan Tindakan Alam Sekitar president Lydia Ong Kok Fooi said that residents here will fall seriously ill with lung and skin issues if the smog and chemicals emanating from the industrial sites are not looked into sooner.
“We have been facing air pollution since 2018, but it has never been as bad as it has since 2019.
“It is very harmful towards the people’s health,” she said in an online forum organised by Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) and Consumers Association of Penang titled “Malaysia is Not a Garbage Dump: Enhancing Monitoring and Enforcement Efforts in Kedah and Penang” today.
Ong said the smell of chemicals and burning is often detected at Taman Intan and Metro Specialist Hospital there.
Additionally, she said, a thick layer of soot often lands on various surfaces at residences and their cars overnight.
Coupled with very high Covid-19 numbers in the district, Ong opined that the area is almost unliveable.
“We know that Covid-19 is now airborne, and Sg Petani has the highest number of cases in the state.
“If the air contains many PM2.5 particles (particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres), the virus could probably attach itself to them and travel everywhere.
We are now under the enhanced movement control order, but we still can smell the acrid burning – there are many illegal plastic waste recycling centres still running day and night.
“These operators dump rubbish at rural areas, villages, and palm oil estates because they do not want to waste their money disposing of their waste correctly.”
Having spoken to many residents who shared the same sentiments, Ong said they are on the verge of giving up after taking up their appeals to the state and federal authorities for the past two years.
“I have already sold my house and am moving to Penang. This is the only way I can save my life,” she said, adding that she had recently developed skin issues due to the deteriorating air quality at her housing estate.
“Metro Specialist Hospital and Pantai Hospital doctors have released data showing an increase in lung issues like bronchitis and asthma of up to 80%, and more than 80% for skin issues like allergies and eczema, affecting a majority of young children and senior citizens,” she said.
Enforcer facing other challenges
However, Sg Petani Environment Department head Ya Mohammad Nazir Syah Ismail explained that the body faces a list of challenges that makes its job to effectively tackle illegal plastic recyclers more difficult.
“We only have 11 staffers, and from there, only nine technical staff to look into three districts.
“These three districts have more than 1,000 sources of pollution, not just from industry waste but also non-industry ones like waste disposal areas, sewage plants, clinical waste and workshops.
“We also have to understand that these environmental offenders are very cunning, always looking for a loophole in our enforcement,” he said.
Other challenges, he said, include inaccurate complaints, which lead them on a wild goose chase at the wrong locations, taking up most of their time.
Covid-19 is also another issue. There was once where we had to do a check at a factory, and we found out that they were doing mass swab testing and sanitisation as there was a cluster in the factory.
“We had to immediately pack up and leave,” he said.
However, he claimed that Ong’s complaints may be due to the burning of charcoal at a factory nearby or the burning of rubber, which is a natural product.
Ya also clarified that many companies were melting plastic and not burning them.
Though plastic burning and melting are different, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are still emitted to the air, though fewer of these VOCs are emitted during the latter compared with burning.
SAM president Meenakshi Raman said more enforcement officers need to be hired under the Sg Petani department as it is really tough to have only nine technical staff in three large districts.
“We need to reinforce the capacity we have and multiply the resources for the department at hotspots, particularly in communities affected.
“We need more people from the department on the ground so the community does not need to suffer,” she added. – The Vibes, July 31, 2021
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