BANGI, July 23 — Putrajaya will produce a report detailing the highest risk factories in Pasir Gudang, Johor within before September amid increasing public scrutiny on the health hazards caused by industry.
Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said there are over 2,000 factories currently operating in the district.
“The government will conduct an analysis of all the factories in Pasir Gudang to find out who is actually responsible.
“Despite not detecting any anomalies, what happens is that the development in Pasir Gudang is too concentrated,” she said at the launch of the Low Carbon Cities Challenge at Greentech Malaysia here today.
However, Yeo said the Johor government is the authority to decide on whether or not to shift out the high-risk factories.
“We will submit this to the state government. It is for the state government to decide,” she said of the detailed report that is in the works.
Yeo said the Department of Environment has checked 257 chemical-based factories in Pasir Gudang to date, and ordered shutdown for 12 while legal action will be taken against three other plants.
The minister previously noted the lack of a buffer zone in Pasir Gudang to separate the factories from residential homes, schools and other social activity centres.
She attributed the overcrowding of factories for her ministry’s difficulty to pinpoint the problematic plant emitting the harmful pollutants that have created two separate health crises for residents nearby in the past six months.
