S’wak to implement Environmental Audit soon’
NREB has conducted several training sessions for environmental audits and so far there is sufficient number of Environmental Auditors to conduct environmental audits.
KUCHING: Sarawak will soon impose Environmental Audit (EA) for all development projects that require environmental impact assessment ( EIA).
Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh said the move is in line with the state’s effort to press forward in environmental conservation and protection.
He said Sarawak would not just stop at EIA or social environment impact assessment (SEIA) but to go further.
“NREB has conducted several training sessions for environmental audits and so far there is sufficient number of Environmental Auditors to conduct environmental audits.
“Such effort will ensure that after the EIA, the companies will continue to protect and conserve the environment,” he said at the opening ceremony of a seminar on Environmental Conservation for Sustainability here yesterday.
The seminar was jointly organised by the Malaysian Institute of Chemistry ( IKM) Sarawak branch and Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB).
Datu Len Talif Salleh, Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment
Len noted that Sarawak has been stringent in its EIA, saying through the implementation of the EIA system, where all the development projects are specified under the NRE ( Prescribed Activities) Order, 1997, the state has been able to minimise many adverse impacts to our environment.
Later, he told reporters that the EA is an additional measure that the state needs to take to ensure all those procedures and guidelines are being followed.
He noted that this environmental audit is one step farther to ensure developers take ownership of environmental stewardship.
“Initially, it might be a bit of a problem for them to adopt it but after a while it will become part of the process in ensuring that all the systems are put in place and they follow it, and it becomes a habit and a process itself,” he said.
Len said environmental auditors are to be the third party that will verify environmental audits carried out by the developers’ internal auditors.
He warned that penalty would be imposed for non- compliance, adding that at the moment, the maximum fine for failure to comply with the terms and regulation is RM30,000.
He noted that the regulation had been there for quite some time but they had not imposed it because the people were not ready from the point of education and system.
“Now, we have been educating them for the past many years already and the issue of environment is everyone’s issue and now that we want to impose it, it is not an issue anymore.
“All developers will have to prepare their audit report on environment. The report is to be submitted based on their activities, the size and environment,” he said.
He said the requirement for them to conduct the EIA, the approval of EIA, will come with the terms and approval conditions.
“They must comply with the approval conditions. The audit is to check on the compliance.
“Yes, they have been complying with the requirement, but this one we want to make it even more stringent, by way of legislation and what not,” he said.
Len said the requirement to comply with EA would take effect after the launch by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg on November 9.
Also present at the launch were IKM Sarawak branch chairman Dr Alvin Chai Lian Kuet and NREB controller Peter Sawal.