GEORGE TOWN: The authorities have been told to step up monitoring and inspections, especially in industrial sites close to schools and residential areas in the Pasir Gudang district in Johor.
This follows yet another incident at a school there where the health of students has been put in jeopardy.
Expressing alarm over the latest incident, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said an urgent explanation as to why the incident happened must be forthcoming.
Its president, Meenakshi Raman, said it was shocking that action was taken by the authorities only when an emergency situation presented itself, such as when students in schools faced serious health conditions.
Clearly, she added, we have not learnt from the recent Sungai Kim Kim pollution, also in Pasir Gudang.
“As such, SAM calls on the Department of Environment (DoE) and the state and local authorities in Johor to place high priority on the poor state of environmental quality in Johor, and take urgent action in monitoring the water and air quality in the state.
“This is especially needed in the Pasir Gudang district and other places where schools and residential areas are (located) close to industrial sites.
“Inspecting factories and industrial sites in the area are also most urgent, to ascertain how the industrial wastes are being disposed of. We should not be waiting for emergencies to happen before taking efforts to decontaminate the affected sites,” she said.
Meenakshi said the recent incidents had also revealed that enforcement measures by authorities were rather ineffective, as action was only taken when complaints were received.
The approach taken, she noted, was usually one of “self-regulation”, meaning that factories and businesses were left to self-regulate.
“The ‘self-regulation approach’ should be stopped immediately, and authorities, especially the DoE, and the local and municipal councils, should step up their monitoring and inspections, especially in industrial sites close to schools and residential areas.
“We call for urgent action to be taken, before more students in the Pasir Gudang area succumb to further deterioration of their health due to exposure to toxic fumes and wastes from industrial activities.
“Further, the culprits who cause such pollution and ill-health should be taken to task for their violation of the laws, with prosecutions that result in jail terms and huge fines, so that environmental crimes are taken seriously in the future,” she said.
It was reported that 15 students from Sekolah Agama Taman Mawar in Pasir Gudang were taken to a nearby hospital, suffering from breathing difficulties and vomiting, on Thursday.
The students had displayed symptoms similar to those affected by the chemical pollution of Sungai Kim Kim in March this year.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad had said that the symptoms could possibly be the result of contamination from organic fumes and that the situation at the school was “under control” with the authorities monitoring the situation, including in determining the cause of the pollution and the contamination levels.