DoE completes final draft on forming panel

PASIR GUDANG: The Department of Environment (DoE) has completed its final draft for the forming of the Toxic Waste Management and Scheduled Waste National Committee following the chemical spill at Sungai Kim Kim.

Its director-general Datuk Dr Ahmad Kamarulnajuib Che Ibrahim said the draft would be sent to the Energy, Science, Tech­nology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry for approval.

“We have completed the draft. We will present it to the ministry as soon as possible for them to make the final decision.

“The committee will be responsible for any future toxic waste management,” he said during a visit to SMK Taman Pasir Putih here yesterday.

Ahmad Kamarulnajuib said the committee would be the highest platform that could make decisions on how to better manage toxic waste so that the Sungai Kim Kim case would not happen again.

He also stressed that the air quality in Pasir Gudang was back back to normal, but the DoE would continue to monitor the condition of Sungai Kim Kim.

State DOE director Datuk Dr Mohammad Ezanni Mat Salleh said DoE was currently searching for factories responsible for

dumping toxic waste into Sungai Selangkah here.

These factories, he said, had taken advantage of a high tide by releasing their waste into the river during the rainy season.

“We have identified 113 factories along Sungai Selangkah within a radius of 10km.

“We have identified 20 to 30 factories which are potential suspects,” Mohammad Ezanni said, adding that DoE had yet to establish if the toxic waste that polluted Sungai Selangkah was the same type dumped into Sungai Kim Kim.