Keeping polluters at bay

JOHOR BARU: Malaysia’s Environmental Quality Act has been strengthened to address environmental offences with significantly higher penalties, says Datuk Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar.

The Environment Department (DOE) director-general said the recent amendments to the Act were approved unanimously in the Dewan Negara and have since been gazetted on June 6 and came into effect on July 7.

“The revised legislation introduces steep increases in fines, raising the maximum penalty from RM500,000 to up to RM10mil – a 20-fold increase.

“Additionally, the amendments mandate a prison sentence of up to five years for offenders, along with compounded fines that now constitute 50% of the total court penalty.

“For instance, a court fine of RM1mil could result in a compound fine of RM500,000,” he said at the Sekolah Lestari-Anugerah Alam Sekitar and Media programme at SK Bukit Mutiara here yesterday.

He added the enhanced penalties serve as a strong deterrent, and DOE intends to prosecute offenders under the amended Act in upcoming cases.

“We are currently preparing investigation papers and seeking authorisation from the Deputy Public Prosecutor. We expect to see rulings under the new amendment by November or December,” he said.

Wan Abdul Latiff hopes the stricter penalties will lead to better compliance and ultimately foster greater environmental responsibility across industries, helping to safeguard Malaysia’s natural resources for future generations.

Meanwhile, he also shared that DOE has reported a slight improvement in Malaysia’s river pollution levels, with the number of polluted rivers dropping from 29 in 2022 to 25 in 2023.

“We continue to monitor river water quality nationwide; we also enforce regulations under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 to address sources of pollution,” he said, adding that some pollution sources fall outside the DOE’s purview.“For these cases, DOE collaborates with other government agencies to take action, aiming to see further improvements in river water quality across Malaysia.

Wan Abdul Latiff said that in June, a Special Committee to Address the Deterioration of River Water Quality was formed under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

“Since then, the committee has held two meetings involving federal, state and district agencies to protect and preserve river quality,” he said.

On June 6, Fadillah was reported as saying that about 72% of rivers nationwide are in the “clean” category.

The Minister for Energy Transition and Water Transformation added that the DOE looked at 486 of the 672 rivers to arrive at this figure.

“One hundred sixty one rivers (24%) are in the moderate category, and the remaining 25 rivers (4%) are polluted,” he said.