‘BUFFER ZONE NOT PRACTICAL’
Residents say proposal can’t be enforced as factories are scattered
RESIDENTS here want authorities to focus on stricter enforcement, as the proposal for a buffer zone between residential and industrial zones is impractical and would be difficult to implement.
Ahmad Rizal Mohd Ansari, 42, from Taman Bukit Dahlia, said a permanent solution needed to be found to resolve the contamination issue here.
“All these years, we had never experienced such severe pollution to the extent of hundreds of people being warded.
“I have lived here for more than 15 years and the factories have never inconvenienced me or my family in any way.”
The father of two said occasionally there were whiffs of weird smells emanating from the factories but not to the extent of undermining the people’s health or wellbeing.
“Maybe we are immune to these smells, which drifted in from the factories.
“However, this time it is different because the smell was not only stronger, but it was ‘sharper’.
“Thank God, these past few days, the air seemed to have improved.”
Rizal said the government’s
proposal to set up an immediate buffer zone was unlikely to pan out because the factories were scattered and were also quite close to public amenities and residential areas.
“Instead, the authorities should re-evaluate the existing town planning and buffer zones. They should pay attention to compliance and enforcement.”
Johari Mohammad Zin, 45, from Taman Air Batu, hopes that the government’s plan of providing a buffer zone to reduce the risk of chemical-related incidents would not require residents to relocate.
“There is barely any space for a buffer now...
“I am not sure how they are going to implement this.
“All I ask is please don’t implement it at our expense.”
Johari said as much as residents welcomed positive developments and safety measures, the authorities, including the relevant ministries, should speak to residents on their concerns.
“Maybe it’s failed town planning, but most of us are not complaining about living so close to an industrial area producing chemicals or hazardous materials because all this while it has not posed any major problems until recently.”
Mohd Khairul, 38, a factory manager, who stays a mere 1km from his workplace in the industrial zone, blames new factories, as well as lackadaisical enforcement, for the latest incident.
“We never had any pollution problems in Pasir Gudang. It is only of late, we are experiencing these episodes of contamination.”
He said the disposal cost for chemical waste, which was quite expensive, was something that the ministry should look into. This is to avoid irresponsible chemical waste dumping.
“Authorities should have been stricter in their enforcement after the first incident. To blame bad town planning is not fair.”
The residents were voicing out their view on Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin’s statement that non-sustainable development, coupled with “missing” buffer zones between chemical factories and housing schemes, including public amenities, such as schools, has exposed residents to the risk of industrial chemical incidents.
Yeo had vowed that the government would take action by conducting a loading capacity analysis, as well as providing a buffer zone between the residential and industrial areas.
She had said that non-sustainable development had caused the environment to become saturated with various suspended gases or vapours and the uncontrolled release of effluents into drains and water channels had caused the environment to become unstable and extremely sensitive.
The latest chemical pollution incident on June 20 saw 748 cases being recorded.
Air quality readings in the area were found to contain high amounts of an “unusual gas” — methyl mercaptan and acrylonitrile and acrolein.
During the toxic pollution incident at Sungai Kim Kim in March, nearly 6,000 residents, including schoolchildren, were affected.
A total of 111 schools were temporarily closed.
Pasir Gudang has 2,005 licensed factories, of which 250 were chemical-based.