S’wak govt conducting study on solid waste management
SIBU: The Sarawak government is now conducting a study to review the existing solid waste management in all the 26 local councils.
According to Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil, the study includes assessing the amount and types of wastes generated, transported and treated as well as the condition of existing treatment facilities - dumpsites and landfills in all the 26 local authorities ( LA) in Sarawak.
“This is with the objective of developing a strategic solid waste management plan, including technical recommendations and financial projection for respective local authorities or as inter-LA partnership, taking into consideration the factors of cost, logistics, and potential impact of pollution of each treatment option,” he said yesterday.
Penguang was commenting on federal Minister of Housing and Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin’s recent statement that the government was targeting each state to have at least one incinerator or waste-toenergy ( WTE) plant within the next two years in a move to do away with solid waste disposal sites.
She was quoted as saying this would make for a cleaner process of solid waste disposal which would also save on land use as it would not require opening up new rubbish disposal sites in the future, adding that the number of incinerators would depend on how much rubbish is generated in each state.
Zuraida also reportedly said that so far, only Negeri Sembilan was building its own incinerator and it was expected to be the first state to start a new solid waste disposal system in two years.
In response to this, Penguang, who is Marudi assemblyman, welcomed Zuraida’s proposal to build at least one incinerator for each state in Malaysia, in a move to do away with solid waste disposal sites or what is called sanitary landfills.
He also noted Zuraida had mentioned that to date, only Negeri Sembilan is building its own incinerator and it is expected to be the first state to start a new solid waste disposal system in two years.
“I wish to update the minister that Sarawak is the first state in the whole of Malaysia to build what we call an integrated waste management park at Mambong, near Kuching – some 14 years ago that is in 2004, which treated both scheduled hazardous wastes as well as municipal wastes.
“The Kuching Integrated Waste Management Park ( KIWMP) is one of the very few level four landfills in Malaysia, where one incinerator was built and operational in 2004 with a design capacity of 30 tonnes per day or 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes per year.
“This incinerator received/ treated hazardous wastes from Brunei and Sabah besides treating such wastes from Malaysia LNG and SHELL plant in Bintulu and elsewhere in Sarawak.
“The said 30 tonnes capacity was unable to cope up with the demand to treat these hazardous wastes with backlog of more than 10 years its capacity,” Penguang said.
In view of this, he added that the state government, which is the major shareholder in the KIWMP, decided to build a second incinerator in 2014 ( in Mambong) with a design capacity of 60 tonnes per day or 20,000 to 24,000 tonnes per year.
He revealed that both these incinerators are capable of handling scheduled wastes in the form of solid wastes, clinical, liquid wastes and steel drums with sludge.
“However, we were not able to utilise the steam/ energy produced by these two incinerators to generate electricity because it is not economical to do so as we produce abundant supply of electric power from the hydro electric dams … that is cleaner and green energy,” he pointed out.
Penguang revealed that studies also showed that it is not wise to build housing estates in former/ ex- landfill areas as such areas will continue to produce active gases which may be dangerous or hazardous to the house dwellers.
“We do however, rehabilitate and develop such disused landfills for parks or recreational sites such as the former Matang landfill in Kuching,” he said.