Residents reject ‘scaled-down’ reclamation plan for Jelutong landfill project

 Bandar Sri Pinang residents say shrinking the proposed project footprint will not address environmental and health risks.

The environment department’s EIA portal has classified the proposed Jelutong landfill rehabilitation project as ‘not approved’. (File pic)

GEORGE TOWN:

 A residents’ group in Penang has rejected chief minister Chow Kon Yeow’s suggestion that the reclamation component of the Jelutong landfill rehabilitation project could proceed in a scaled-down form after it failed to obtain environmental approval.

Persatuan Penduduk Bandar Sri Pinang argued that a “fundamentally flawed” reclamation plan “cannot be cured by a new label, a smaller footprint, or a repackaged concept”.

The group said the project raises serious concerns over the health risks to Jelutong residents from the unearthing of decades-old toxic waste, as well as the environmental impact on the nearby Middle Bank seagrass bed.

“Reducing the size of the reclamation does not remove the hazard. It merely scales the devastation,” the group said in a statement today.

“Rebranding does not change the reality. We firmly reject any incremental approach to coastal reclamation.”

On Wednesday, Chow had hinted that the project could still proceed in a scaled-down form. He had previously raised the possibility that, even if approved, the reclamation component could be reduced.

He also said the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) would study the environment department’s rejection letter before making recommendations to the state government.

The residents’ group, however, questioned why PDC, which manages the proposed project, had been tasked with reviewing the rejection.

It said a party directly involved in the project’s implementation cannot be considered as a neutral interpreter of the environment department’s findings on the project.

It called for full public disclosure, independent expert scrutiny, and formal participation of the affected residents in any review process.

“If public resources are being used to review this failure, then the public must be granted immediate and unredacted access to understand the scientific basis of the rejection.

“After years of controversy and repeated public assurances that the project would not proceed without EIA approval, transparency is the absolute minimum condition for credibility.

“The public cannot be coerced into accepting a reformulated proposal while the empirical grounds for the original rejection remain concealed,” it said. - FMT