New waste committee must get tough
setting up of the Toxic Waste Management and Scheduled Waste National Committee is timely and must be supported by all parties as it could tackle indiscriminate disposal of hazardous waste.
It was reported that the Department of Environment (DoE) had completed the final draft of the establishment of the committee following the chemical spill at Sungai Kim Kim in Pasir Gudang, Johor.
The draft will be sent to the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry for approval.
I believe the committee is the highest platform that could make decisions on how to better manage toxic waste so that the Sungai Kim Kim incident does not recur.
Apart from DoE and other agencies, the committee should include experts from the institutions of higher learning and the private sector.
They must study how the toxic and scheduled waste is being handled in developed countries in a way that does not harm their people and the environment.
They must find ways to strengthen enforcement based on existing laws, especially the Environment Quality Act 1974 and the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.
Despite having the legislation that regulates 77 types of hazardous waste, illegal dumping is rampant due to a lack of enforcement, while the culprits are more interested in evading disposal fees and waste levy.
The incident at Sungai Kim Kim is only the tip of the iceberg.
Apart from illegal dumping by irresponsible people, toxic waste could also originate from rubbish dumps and landfills. Most of our landfills and dumpsites are not properly designed, and gases and leachates are poorly collected and treated before being released into the environment. That is why the air near such landfills or dumpsites has an overpowering stench.
Polluted water from such landfills and dumpsites would leach into the ground and contaminate it with hazardous substances
To compound matters, irresponsible people are disposing of hazardous wastes at the landfills, while more illegal dumpsites are cropping up to cater to the increasing demand.
The committee should propose an amendment to the present law to compel those who dump chemicals to pay the cost of rehabilitation of the environment and Chairman, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health