Holiday events will show impact of clean-up efforts

KUALA LUMPUR: The announcement by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik that schools in Pasir Gudang will be closed until the term break gave a much-needed certainty to parents about their children’s schooling schedule.

However, some parents who are about to hold the weddings of their sons and daughters are not so worry-free.

As per the norm, the school holidays will see weddings being held in Pasir Gudang, including in housing areas near Sungai Kim Kim, where hundreds of tonnes of chemical waste had been cleared out following the toxic fumes incidents last week.

Schools are easier for the authorities to monitor as their locations are fixed and their operational parameters known, but weddings are the opposite.

The only similarity between the two is the large number of people present.

One of the worried parents is Jaliah Hassan, 54, of Taman Cendana in Pasir Gudang. Her 26-year-old daughter’s wedding will be held at a community hall in Kota Masai, which is near Sungai Kim Kim.

“Is there a need for wedding guests to wear face masks? I don’t want to put them at risk if there is any possibility of the toxic fumes recurring,” she said.

She had sent out 600 wedding invitations and some of her relatives from outside Pasir Gudang had asked whether it was safe to travel there.

“Some of them are worried about bringing their children to the wedding.”

However, she said the air quality in Pasir Gudang had improved compared with during the height of the toxic fumes incident.

“Hopefully, all will be fine in time for the wedding,” she said.

However, it was a different story for another parent in Kampung Kopok Baru, who was confident that the situation had returned to normal.

The man, in his 50s, who declined to be named, will hold the wedding of his daughter during the coming holidays.

“The authorities had cleaned up Sungai Kim Kim. The air is clear from any malodour. I don’t have any worries. As the air is clear, it will only get better on my daughter’s wedding day,” he said.

The gathering of people across Pasir Gudang during the coming school holidays will be the litmus test for the cleanup efforts by the authorities in the past week. If all goes well then it is proof that life in Pasir Gudang had returned to normal.