Official silence keeps garbage trucks rolling

 The residents of Sungai Pusu have spent a year complaining about illegal dumping in their vicinity, yet the authorities have not done anything to resolve the problem.

For over a year, residents in Sungai Pusu and the area surrounding the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) campus in Gombak have endured foul air, dust, and hundreds of garbage trucks rumbling past their homes every day.

They have written letters, lodged complaints, and waited. Nothing has changed.

On July 14, 2026, the Surau Al-Abqari Villa Bestari residents’ committee, led by Mohamed Ali Abu Bakar, submitted an official complaint to Selangor state secretary Ahmad Fadzil Ahmad Tajuddin.

This was not their first appeal. The letter refers to an earlier complaint dated July 23, 2025. The authorities have had a full year to act. They have not.

The facts laid out in the letter should shame every agency involved.

Illegal waste dumping is taking place at no fewer than three active sites near Sungai Pusu and IIUM. Hundreds of lorries enter these sites every day, from morning until night. When one site is shut down, another quickly opens nearby.

Residents have documented the lorries, the dumps, and a fire that broke out on June 12, 2026. The incident was reported in the mainstream media.

Along Jalan UIAM–Sungai Pusu, the air is thick with the stench of rotting waste and open burning. Flies swarm. Stray dogs multiply. Dust coats homes and vehicles.

Meanwhile, Sungai Pusu faces the risk of contamination from a dump that should never have existed.

The roads tell the same story. The heavy lorries are destroying roads used daily by IIUM students, schoolchildren, and residents. The surface is riddled with potholes.

This is not simply a maintenance problem. It is a public safety issue caused by an illegal operation that the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) has failed to stop.

The residents have done everything expected of them. They have complained to MPS, councillors, the Gombak Land Office, and their elected representatives.

Their July 14 letter was copied to 10 offices, namely housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming, Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari, state exco for environment Jamaliah Jamaluddin; the National Solid Waste Management Department director-general, director of the Selangor Department of Environment, the Gombak Land Office, MPS, the local MP and state assemblyman, the rector of IIUM, and neighbouring residents’ associations.

When a complaint has to be copied to 10 authorities, it says two things — the problem is serious, and no single agency has taken ownership of it.

That is the real scandal.

This is not a hidden operation. The lorries arrive in broad daylight. The dumping sites are plainly visible. The fire made national news.

Yet enforcement, in the residents’ own words, “has not been able to stop the activity comprehensively”. Close one site and another appears.

That does not happen by chance. It happens because someone, somewhere, is allowing it to continue. The residents are justified in calling for an investigation into possible corruption.

The letter raises another troubling question. Information has been circulating that land in the area is being bought specifically for waste disposal.

If true, what is described as “illegal” dumping may actually be the quiet creation of a landfill through the back door, without environmental approval, public consultation, or an environmental impact assessment (EIA). That dumping would be taking place beside homes, a river, and a university campus.

The residents have asked the state secretary six straightforward questions.

•  What is the true status of the land?
• Are there plans to legalise dumping there?
• Has an EIA been carried out?
• What action will be taken against landowners, lorry owners, and operators?
• What immediate and long-term measures will end this activity for good?
• And when will the roads be restored for the residents?

These are not unreasonable questions. They are the minimum any community has the right to ask. They deserve written answers within the 14 days requested by the residents.

Let us be clear about what is at stake. This is not just about stench or litter. It is about public health. It is about the air children breathe in, the water flowing into Sungai Pusu, and the safety of students using damaged roads.

It is about IIUM, whose campus and surrounding community are being treated as a sacrificial zone.

It is also about governance. Selangor often speaks of sustainability and environmental leadership. It is easy to sign ESG pledges and deliver speeches about green cities.

Yet, the state government seems to have found it much harder to protect a community in Gombak from hundreds of waste lorries passing through its neighbourhood every day.

The residents of Sungai Pusu have done their part. They have documented the problem, filed complaints, taken photographs, and appealed to every relevant authority for more than a year.

The responsibility now rests with the state secretary, MPS, the Gombak Land Office, Environment Department, and Selangor’s elected representatives.

If a fire at an illegal dump, widespread media coverage, a year of complaints, and a letter copied to 10 authorities still fail to prompt action, then this is no longer just a waste management issue.

It becomes a question of governance.

Whose interests are the authorities protecting — the residents who live there, or the operators who profit from their inaction?

The residents of Sungai Pusu are watching.

So is the public.

Silence is no longer an acceptable response. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.