PUTRAJAYA: The Environment Department (DOE) conducted more than 5,000 inspections nationwide and recorded accumulated fines amounting to RM4.59mil involving environmental pollution cases during the first four months of this year.
The department said a total of 5,074 inspections were carried out on 4,339 premises subject to the Environmental Quality Act 1974 between Jan 1 and April 30.
According to DOE’s statement, the inspections involved various industrial sectors, including crude palm oil mills, raw natural rubber factories, scheduled waste recovery facilities, sewage treatment plants, as well as other industries with the potential to pollute the environment.
“Based on the inspections and investigations conducted, DOE has taken 3,149 follow-up enforcement actions against parties found to be non-compliant with the Environmental Quality Act 1974,” the statement said, Bernama reported.
According to DOE, the enforcement actions comprised 1,587 directive notices, 1,369 compounds, 44 equipment operation detention actions, two licence suspension actions, 18 prohibition orders, as well as 129 investigation papers for prosecution purposes.
“In addition, 148 offences have completed court prosecution proceedings and resulted in convictions with accumulated fines totalling RM4,598,500, as well as a one-day jail sentence,” the statement said.
During the same period, DOE also conducted 1,906 enforcement operations on motor vehicle smoke emissions involving inspections of 137,722 vehicles nationwide, in addition to carrying out 811 inspections on projects that had obtained Environmental Impact Assessment approval.
In efforts to curb the illegal entry of scheduled waste into the country, DOE said 51 inspection operations were conducted at major ports involving inspections of 702 containers suspected of carrying scheduled waste.
“Inspection results found that 427 containers contained scheduled waste, including electrical and electronic waste. Following this, 73 directive notices were issued instructing that the containers be sent out of Malaysia.”
To date, 53 containers had been successfully returned to their countries of origin.
In addition, DOE said monitoring of open burning had been intensified, with 3,237 investigations carried out nationwide during the period, including on 494 hotspots that had been detected and suspected of involving such activities.
