MBMB issues stop-work order on sand dredging firm

MALACCA: Malacca Historic City Council (MBMB) has issued an immediate stopwork order to a sand dredging company for illegally carrying out ship repair works at Klebang beach here.

The action was taken following a visit by MBMB enforcement officers on Friday evening which revealed illegal sandblasting and hot work activities being carried out at the site.

According to mayor Datuk Zainal Husin, the site was meant for vessels involved in sand dredging works along the coastal line here.

“We checked and discovered the operator of the facility had taken the authorities for granted and MBMB has started investigating how they began work without getting approval,” he said yesterday.

Zainal said the company also failed to apply for a permit from the city council and Department of Safety and Occupational Health (DOSH).

Malacca’s DOSH director Jaafar Lenan said his team rushed to the site and confirmed that the operator had flouted safety and environmental guidelines.

He said DOSH would recommend punitive action against the operator once a full investigation has been completed.

Sandblasting and hot work of shipping vessels involve the use of cleaning solvents and chemical preservative coatings which contain toxic and flammable ingredients such as hydrocarbon solvents and epoxy resins. Such activities should only be done at dry docks.

Also, sandblasting is also detrimental to the environment as debris and chemical substances could contaminate the seawater.

Malacca’s Department of Environment’s (DOE) director Shafe’ee Yasin said the approval for such work should come from the local council and his department is one of the agencies to approve such licence.

“We will wait for instructions from MBMB if they want us to investigate the environmental impact caused by the operator,” he said.