KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27— Budget cuts made to the Department of Environment (DOE) under the 2017 federal budget can have an adverse impact on the department ability to monitor and take action against pollutant dumping activities into rivers, DAP’s Ong Kian Ming said today.
Ong pointed out that the monitoring and enforcement for budget for DOE was slashed from RM105 million in 2016 to only RM 76.5 million for 2017, which is a 27 per cent reduction.
“This large cut will inevitably jeopardise the ability of the DOE to effectively monitor the illegal dumping of pollutants into our rivers by factories and other irresponsible parties,” the Serdang MP said.
He said that rivers had become “increasingly vulnerable” to pollution, and that monitoring and enforcement budget should be increased by 30 per cent and not slashed by close to 30 per cent.
“The cuts are unacceptable and I call upon the Finance Minister to reverse the cuts,” he said.
He said that many complaints regarding noise and smell emissions in factories in his constituency were forwarded to DOE.
“The usual response I receive is that they don’t have enough enforcement officers and a sufficient budget to carry out their monitoring and enforcement duties,” he said.
Recently, the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant had to be temporarily closed after polluted water flowed into the plant originating from Negri Sembilan.
Unidentified parties allegedly dumped heavy chemical compounds into the Sg Buah river in Negri Sembilan, causing the pollution.
