DOE responds to claim that monopoly led to firms dumping pollutants into rivers

The Department of Environment (DOE) has responded to a claim that a monopoly in handling scheduled waste was the cause behind firms dumping pollutants into rivers.

This came after a message was circulated via social media alleging that the government had given exclusive contracts to several companies, which monopolised the activities and purportedly charged an exorbitant price for their service.

In a statement today, DOE director-general Norlin Jaafar denied the claim.

"DOE wants to stress that there are no exclusive rights given in the licensing of premises that handle scheduled waste in Malaysia.

"So far, DOE has issued licences for Recovery, Processing and Scheduled Disposal Facilities to 406 premises and 343 carriers to ensure scheduled waste management is efficient and up to the standard as required under the Environment Quality Act 1974," she said.

According to Norlin, the only exclusive right that was given by the government was a 15-year contract to Kualiti Alam Sdn Bhd in 2000, which was to operate the Centralised Integrated Scheduled Waste Management Centre.

This contract expired on Feb 28, 2015.

Norlin (above) added that the DOE was not involved in fixing any costs in scheduled waste disposal, and any charge applied to the producer of the waste was fixed by the waste disposal businesses.

Last week, nearly 1.2 million consumers in the Klang Valley were affected by a water cut after four treatment plants had to be shut down due to pollutants dumped into Sungai Gong, which flows into the Sungai Selangor.

The authorities have since traced the source of pollutants to a factory in Rawang and arrested four men to facilitate investigation into the pollution.

Following this, a rumour was circulated, including on Facebook, claiming that government policy was to be blamed as companies purportedly had to engage only certain operators that were given the exclusive right to dispose of scheduled waste.

"The whole issue boils down to policy set by the government. The government has given exclusive contracts to a few companies to collect Scheduled Waste. And the fees they charge for collecting the wastes are ridiculously high.

"They were supposed to offer solutions to those manufacturers, but no; they take advantage of their privileged position," claimed one message that was posted on Facebook by user Tunku Sara Tunku Ahmad.

Norlin said the government has planned to build five more facilities for integrated waste management in Johor, Perak, Terengganu, Sabah and Penang.

"This is to ensure that scheduled wastes can be better managed," she said. - Mkini