COMPOUNDS and court fines totalling RM2.08 million for causing water pollution have been issued in the last eight months, Deputy Environment and Water Minister Dr Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad told the Dewan Negara today.

Action has also been taken against 500 industrial premises for water pollution offences, and six of them have had their licences revoked while 39 have been charged in court.

The ministry is also drafting amendments to the Environment Quality Act 1974 for harsher penalties for pollution offences, which it hopes to table next year.

Masrizal was responding to a question by Senator A. Kesavadas on whether the government is muling stiffer punishments, including mandatory imprisonment, for pollution offences. 

In response to an earlier question by Senator Balasubramaniam Nachiappan, Masrizal said of 57,396 industrial premises operating nationwide, 3,480 had released effluents into waterways. 

Balasubramaniam was asking about enforcement measures by the ministry against industrial premises to avoid river pollution.

The Environment Department has conducted 66 operations between January and August this year, involving 2,398 premises, the deputy minister added.

Citing data from the United Nations, Masrizal said environmental crimes form the fourth largest organised crime activity after drugs, money laundering and human trafficking, growing at a rate of 5% to 7% annually. 

“Environmental crimes have not only affected the country’s sustainability and human health but it has also threatened national security,” he said.

The ministry announced yesterday that an inter-agency enforcement unit, comprising officials from the Environment Department, National Water Services Commission and the police has been set up to curb environmental crimes. 

Four brothers and a workshop manager from a workshop in Rawang were charged at the Selayang Sessions Court today for allegedly polluting a river that caused water supply disruptions for four days across the Klang Valley earlier this month .

In March last year, the country saw its worst incidence of river pollution at Sungai Kim Kim, when toxic chemicals from a tyre processing factory were dumped into the river, causing fumes that made school children sick. Around 6,000 people in the area were affected and more than 2,000 were hospitalised.

Two of the company’s directors and a lorry driver were charged over the incident. – September 15, 2020.