KOTA KINABALU: Sabah
Environment Protection Association President Wong Tack said it objects a
Genting Sdn Bhd proposal to build a palm oil mill in Pulau Jambongan, north of
Sandakan.
"We received the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report from the Environment Protection
Department which invited Sepa for comments but we will not even look at the
consultant's EIA report," Wong Tack said.
"In the first place,
the Department of Agriculture should not even have approved any Agricultural
Development Plan for oil palm on an island, let alone asking us to entertain an
endorsement for a CPO mill which a two-year State sponsored study has
identified as the "most serious source" of pollution of nearly every
river where such mills operate.
"They have blatantly used
our rivers as their open sewers for palm oil mill effluents which have killed
most aquatic life," Wong Tack, said.
"We are aware that the
Department of Urban and Regional Country Planning once rejected the proposal
for very good reasons and it has now returned to us in the form of an
EIA," Wong Tack said.
"We believe the initial
rejection was a correct official decision and Sepa stands by that
decision," he said.
"This is because the
industry has so far completely failed to convince Sepa on both their ability
and sincerity to control their killer waste discharges which have rendered many
rivers dead and destroyed even drinking water for helpless rural folks,"
he said.
"We have to fight a
very difficult battle to get them to even pay any attention at all to stop
their pollution of our water systems at all fronts - POME, excessive NPK and
pesticides including banned pesticides," Wong Tack said.
"They have ignored
practically all the years of angry protests from affected villagers downstream
and even if a State Government Minister reiterates plea for zero discharge,
many mills fear not and have remained recalcitrant," he charged.
To say 'yes' to the Pulau
Jambongan palm oil mill is to let them open a new frontier of deadly pollution
right at the doorsteps of Sabah's most productive marine ecosystems and destroy
it as well," he warned.
"The Peninsular
Malaysia based Genting Sdn Bhd wants to put a mill on an island which forms
part of the world famous Coral Triangle designed to protect the richest and most
diverse marine ecosystems.
"It's a very beautiful
island surrounded by pristine waters teeming with lobsters, white sandy
beaches, escalating tourism potential as an upcoming dive site with emerging
chalets for such purposes, lapped by a major mangrove forest reserve,"
Wong Tack pointed out.
"What a crazy idea to
approve a big oil palm plantation and then the demand for a palm oil mill on
such a sensitive and productive marine ecosystem," he said.
"It clearly shows that
the expansion of Sabah's oil palm industry is getting out of hand and we need
to check this unfettered growth which will eventually turn all the biodiversity
and landscape of Sabah into nothing but oil palms and acacia in 20 to 30 years
," Wong Tack warned.
"We know for a fact
that any new permit for opening an oil palm plantation requires a minimum
10,000 acres and so the size of this Jambogan Island plantation must be in
excess of 10,000 acres," Wong Tack said.
"We had voiced out repeatedly
in the past the approval of oil palm plantations in many small islands in
Darvel Bay near Lahad Datu, and worse, the Land Office had alienated even steep
rocky coastal slopes lining the whole Darvel Bay, for oil palm." Wong Tack
alleged.
"How crazy can it get
when both the Land Office and the Department of Agriculture approve steep rocky
faces to plant oil palm with little or no production for lack of soil and
because it exposes them to strong coastal winds which render them weak and
unproductive ," Wong Tack alleged.
"The oil palm craze is
getting so ridiculous that we need to question both departments what had
happened to due process,' he said.
"Sepa questions the
authorities such as the Department of Agriculture, the Land and Survey Department
and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board how could they allow such practices,"
Wong tack said.
"Although the industry
is making a lot of money, we have also seen how the mill effluents as well as
chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) leached out had destroyed the State's
major rivers with no sign of action and we feel compelled to warn the people of
Sabah the spread of similar destruction to the coastal marine ecosystems which
have produced Sabah's famous seafood industry.
"We are asking the
State and Federal authorities to impose an outright ban to the proposed mill on
Pulau Jambongan in view of an impending hellhole," Wong Tack said.
"The process of CPO
production requires huge quantities of fresh water to generate super heated
steam for the sterilisation of freshly harvested fruits to prevent them from
quickly turning into free fatty acids, in addition for the clarification and
hydrocycloning processes, all of which produces huge volumes of palm oil mill
effluents which become big pollutants of the surrounding water bodies,"
Wong tack said.
"So where will the
proposed oil mill on Pulau Jambongan get its huge water needed except by
pumping underground water which will eventually lower its fresh water table and
invite salt intrusion?" Wong Tack asked.
"Even if the mills
succeed in achieving zero POME discharge, oil palm planters generally pump huge
quantities of NPK to force feed their trees to produce and this alone can
deliver a similar killer blow to the surrounding rivers or water bodies when
unusually high volumes of phosphates trigger algal blooms that will consume
most of the dissolved oxygen thus causing larger oxygen requiring fish and
aquatic organisms to die," Wong Tack said.
"No government with any
public conscience at all should be a party to this environmental crime,"
he said.(DE)
apa2 aktiviti kena ambil kira kesan terhadap alam sekitar.
ReplyDeleteJika ia memudaratkan alam sekitar untuk jangka masa panjang, harus hentikan.
ReplyDeletePersekitaran haruslah dipertahankan.
ReplyDeleteAlam sekitar perlu juga dititik-beratkan
DeleteBetul itu..Apa pun aktiviti yang ingin dijalankan seharusnya dikaji terlebih dahulu ini bagi yang melibatkan kawasan yang besar.
ReplyDeletePerangan yang mendalam dan teliti perlu untuk mengelak sebarang isu yang tidak diingini berlaku.
ReplyDeletependuduk pulau jambongan seharusnya mengalu-alukan tindakan pihak kerajaan dalam usaha membantu rakyatnya dalam rangka untuk membangunkan pulau jambongan.
ReplyDeleteBorneo Paradise (Blog)
Borneo Paradise (Facebook)
saya menyokong agar tanah2 terbiar di Pulau berkenaan di majukan bagi tujuan menaik taraf kehidupan serta ekonomi penduduk2 dalam dan juga sekitar pulau jambongan di mana penduduk mendapat banyak menafaat terutama sekali peluang pekerjaan di samping menambah pendapatan selain daripada pekerjan hakiki sebagai nelayan.
ReplyDeleteBorneo Paradise (Blog)
Borneo Paradise (Facebook)
pembinaan kilang pemprosesan kelapa sawit adalah satu langkah yang baik untuk memajukan industry perladangan di pulau tersebut.walau bagaimana pun, kerajaan perlu mempertimbangkan semula dan mengkaji sedalam2nya cadangan tersebut berkenaan dengan kesan bagi jangka masa panjang bagi mengelakkan impak negatif terhadap ekosistem khasnya dalam industri perikanan yang mana akan menjejaskan sumber pendapatan para nelayan tempatan di kawasan tersebut.
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