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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

SEPA IS AGAINST MILL IN JAMBONGAN




KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Environment Protection Association President Wong Tack said it objects a Genting Sdn Bhd proposal to build a palm oil mill in Pulau Jambongan, north of Sandakan.

"We received the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report from the Environment Protection Department which invited Sepa for comments but we will not even look at the consultant's EIA report," Wong Tack said.
"In the first place, the Department of Agriculture should not even have approved any Agricultural Development Plan for oil palm on an island, let alone asking us to entertain an endorsement for a CPO mill which a two-year State sponsored study has identified as the "most serious source" of pollution of nearly every river where such mills operate.

"They have blatantly used our rivers as their open sewers for palm oil mill effluents which have killed most aquatic life," Wong Tack, said.

"We are aware that the Department of Urban and Regional Country Planning once rejected the proposal for very good reasons and it has now returned to us in the form of an EIA," Wong Tack said.

"We believe the initial rejection was a correct official decision and Sepa stands by that decision," he said.

"This is because the industry has so far completely failed to convince Sepa on both their ability and sincerity to control their killer waste discharges which have rendered many rivers dead and destroyed even drinking water for helpless rural folks," he said.

"We have to fight a very difficult battle to get them to even pay any attention at all to stop their pollution of our water systems at all fronts - POME, excessive NPK and pesticides including banned pesticides," Wong Tack said.

"They have ignored practically all the years of angry protests from affected villagers downstream and even if a State Government Minister reiterates plea for zero discharge, many mills fear not and have remained recalcitrant," he charged.

To say 'yes' to the Pulau Jambongan palm oil mill is to let them open a new frontier of deadly pollution right at the doorsteps of Sabah's most productive marine ecosystems and destroy it as well," he warned.

"The Peninsular Malaysia based Genting Sdn Bhd wants to put a mill on an island which forms part of the world famous Coral Triangle designed to protect the richest and most diverse marine ecosystems.

"It's a very beautiful island surrounded by pristine waters teeming with lobsters, white sandy beaches, escalating tourism potential as an upcoming dive site with emerging chalets for such purposes, lapped by a major mangrove forest reserve," Wong Tack pointed out.

"What a crazy idea to approve a big oil palm plantation and then the demand for a palm oil mill on such a sensitive and productive marine ecosystem," he said.

"It clearly shows that the expansion of Sabah's oil palm industry is getting out of hand and we need to check this unfettered growth which will eventually turn all the biodiversity and landscape of Sabah into nothing but oil palms and acacia in 20 to 30 years ," Wong Tack warned.

"We know for a fact that any new permit for opening an oil palm plantation requires a minimum 10,000 acres and so the size of this Jambogan Island plantation must be in excess of 10,000 acres," Wong Tack said.

"We had voiced out repeatedly in the past the approval of oil palm plantations in many small islands in Darvel Bay near Lahad Datu, and worse, the Land Office had alienated even steep rocky coastal slopes lining the whole Darvel Bay, for oil palm." Wong Tack alleged.

"How crazy can it get when both the Land Office and the Department of Agriculture approve steep rocky faces to plant oil palm with little or no production for lack of soil and because it exposes them to strong coastal winds which render them weak and unproductive ," Wong Tack alleged.

"The oil palm craze is getting so ridiculous that we need to question both departments what had happened to due process,' he said.

"Sepa questions the authorities such as the Department of Agriculture, the Land and Survey Department and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board how could they allow such practices," Wong tack said.

"Although the industry is making a lot of money, we have also seen how the mill effluents as well as chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) leached out had destroyed the State's major rivers with no sign of action and we feel compelled to warn the people of Sabah the spread of similar destruction to the coastal marine ecosystems which have produced Sabah's famous seafood industry.

"We are asking the State and Federal authorities to impose an outright ban to the proposed mill on Pulau Jambongan in view of an impending hellhole," Wong Tack said.

"The process of CPO production requires huge quantities of fresh water to generate super heated steam for the sterilisation of freshly harvested fruits to prevent them from quickly turning into free fatty acids, in addition for the clarification and hydrocycloning processes, all of which produces huge volumes of palm oil mill effluents which become big pollutants of the surrounding water bodies," Wong tack said.

"So where will the proposed oil mill on Pulau Jambongan get its huge water needed except by pumping underground water which will eventually lower its fresh water table and invite salt intrusion?" Wong Tack asked.

"Even if the mills succeed in achieving zero POME discharge, oil palm planters generally pump huge quantities of NPK to force feed their trees to produce and this alone can deliver a similar killer blow to the surrounding rivers or water bodies when unusually high volumes of phosphates trigger algal blooms that will consume most of the dissolved oxygen thus causing larger oxygen requiring fish and aquatic organisms to die," Wong Tack said.

"No government with any public conscience at all should be a party to this environmental crime," he said.(DE)

13 comments:

  1. Susahlah kalau macam ni. Kelulusan sepatutnya tidak diberi sesuka hati bagi mengelakkan hal-hal yang tak diigini berlaku.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Semoga perkara ini mendapat perhatian sewajarnya.

    ReplyDelete
  3. the State continues to see progress in several sectors of the economy, most notably in oil and gas, palm oil and tourism

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sector penanaman akan menjadi unsur pendapatan yang penting di Sabah.

    ReplyDelete
  5. apa2 aktiviti kena ambil kira kesan terhadap alam sekitar.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aktiviti perkilangan akan menyumbang secara langsung sisa buangan khususnya kepada air laut dalam bentuk cecair atau pepejal yang bertoksik. ini akan melibatkan pencemaran air dan juga akan membantutkan kitaran hidupan laut termasuk tumbuh-tumbuhan air dan terumbu karang dan sekaligus menyumbang kepada kepupusan dan pembunuhan hidupan air yang menjadi keutamaan kehidupan warga nelayan.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Menurut Menteri Pelancongan dan Alam Sekitar Sabah, Datuk Masidi Manjun, sebarang permohonan akan melalui proses tapisan piawaian alam sekitar yang ketat dengan mengambil kira kedudukan Jambongan sebagai sebuah pulau yang berpotensi untuk pelancongan kerana terkenal dengan khazanah alam semula jadi.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tapisan kelulusan bukannya mudah untuk diperolehi. Banyak procedure yang perlu diikuti. Tapi apa pun pastikan penjagaan alam sekitar lebih diberikan keutamaan.

    ReplyDelete
  9. penduduk pulau jambongan seharusnya mengalu-alukan tindakan pihak kerajaan dalam usaha membantu rakyatnya dalam rangka untuk membangunkan pulau jambongan.

    ReplyDelete
  10. saya menyokong agar tanah2 terbiar di Pulau berkenaan di majukan bagi tujuan menaik taraf kehidupan serta ekonomi penduduk2 dalam dan juga sekitar pulau jambongan di mana penduduk mendapat banyak menafaat terutama sekali peluang pekerjaan di samping menambah pendapatan selain daripada pekerjan hakiki sebagai nelayan.

    ReplyDelete
  11. pembinaan kilang pemprosesan kelapa sawit adalah satu langkah yang baik untuk memajukan industry perladangan di pulau tersebut.

    walau bagaimana pun, kerajaan perlu mempertimbangkan semula dan mengkaji sedalam2nya cadangan tersebut berkenaan dengan kesan bagi jangka masa panjang bagi mengelakkan impak negatif terhadap ekosistem khasnya dalam industri perikanan yang mana akan menjejaskan sumber pendapatan para nelayan tempatan di kawasan tersebut.

    ReplyDelete

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