MARCH 8 — Of late, there have been many criticisms on environmental issues in Johor, specifically about polluted rivers, mangroves and also the development of Forest City near the Sungai Pulai area. On Sungai Pulai, many have shared their views on issues pertaining to:

  • cutting across the seagrass meadows
  • mangrove ecosystem, mudflats and shoals
  • potentially altering currents and threatening the ecosystem’s rich biodiversity
  • sea horses swimming upstream
  • Dugongs and other protected species

Surprisingly enough, no one has said a thing about Port of Tanjung Pelepas or PTP. This is odd as if one looks closely, PTP is situated right next to Forest City in the Sungai Pulai river mouth. Not once any NGOs or environmental groups have highlighted anything on Port of Tanjung Pelepas or its impact on the environment and ecosystem.

The real environmental time bomb in the area is not the people who are working/living in Forest City or playing golf there but the ships which are moving in and out of Port of Tanjung Pelepas and Tanjung Bin. As a person who grew up in the area, I am amazed by the silence on PTP from day one. There has always been very little news about PTP or the damage that it has done to the environment especially to Sungai Pulai

For example on 24th August 2016, when the vessel MV Trident Star was berthed at the Tanjung Bin terminal, a major oil spill occurred polluted Sungai Pulai area.

Advertisement

The vessel was in the process of loading 2,500 tonnes of marine fuel oil as cargo when one of its tanks overflowed onto the upper deck, and subsequently spilled an estimated 60 - 70 tonnes of fuel into the sea. The oil spill thereafter spread out into the adjacent waters and towards PTP port areas. The sea here is actually referring to the Sungai Pulai river estuarine.

Below are various news report regarding the oil spill and somehow it never made it was never reported in the Malaysian main stream media:

http://www.maritimeherald.com/2016/major-oil-spill-in-malaysian-port-tanjung-pelepas-closed-container-terminal/

Advertisement

https://shipandbunker.com/news/apac/538654-70-tonne-bunker-spill-from-tanker-responsible-for-vtti-terminal-closure-reports

https://wildshores.blogspot.com/2016/09/johor-oil-spill-affecting-port-of.html#.XHexJugzZPY

Subsequenty the oil spill from the 103 metres long MV Trident Star vessel forced the shutdown of the Tg Bin terminal and impacted operations at PTP that Maersk Line,a major international shipping line also instructed its vessels due to PTP to divert to Singapore.

In a news report on 20th July 2017 in The Edge newspaper, it was reported that MMC Corp Bhd's 70 per cent-owned subsidiary PelabuhanTanjung Pelepas SdnBhd (PTP) has filed a lawsuit against Rising Star Shipping Sdn Bhd (RSS) and The Shipowners' Mutual Protection and Indemnity Association (Luxembourg) Singapore Branch seeking RM31.86 million in damages for an oil spill at the PTP port in Johor. And on the same day, MMC in a filing with Bursa Malaysia claimed that PTP had suffered "various and substantial losses" from the oil pollution damage caused by the spill.

But nothing was reported on the damage that was done to the Sungai Pulai ecosystem and environment and even today no one is talking about the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP). Why was there silence from the environmental NGOs back then and even today? What damage did that oil spill do to the environment and all those sea horses, dugongs, seagrass and other species in that area? There has been hardly any information about this.

And more recently on 9th February 2019, there was a collision between a Greece-registered bulk carrier Pireas and a Malaysia vessel Polaris in the waters south of PTP in an open sea area where both Malaysia and Singapore have started disputing over ownership. The vessel Pireas was on its way from Singapore to PTP. Luckily there was no oil spill or any other environmental damage.

Interestingly enough even though many believe that this collision occurred because of the overlapping claims by both countries for a sea area in between both nations, once again not a single environmental group or NGO was reported in Malaysia asking the federal government of Malaysia to resolve this sea territorial issues through discussions and not to take risky actions such as allowing Malaysian ships into that area which may cause a collision and in turn become a major environmental incident.

Obviously this is not important to the rather selective environmental groups or are they mere puppets and being used by hidden hands to only talk about certain issues and turn a blind eye on others.

Besides the risk of oil spills and the pollution of the chemicals stored at PTP, other damage was done much earlier during the construction phase of PTP. Citing the following sources:

https://www2.iadc-dredging.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/terra-et-aqua-80-complete.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269669822_Sustainable_Maintenance_of_Navigation_Channel_The_Case_of_Port_Tanjung_Pelepas_PTP_Port

Under the auspices of the Malaysian Government’s VISION 2020, Malaysia’s blueprint to become a fully developed nation by the year 2020, the port is to be developed in five phases and scheduled to have 12 berths completed by the year 2020.”

An estimated 200 hectares of land containing mangroves was cleared just for Phase 1 of the PTP construction. This was then followed by the Phase 2 construction. So are the same environment groups going to start making noise and demand that PTP port be closed and liable for the environmental damage it has caused in that area?

To conclude, besides the major oil spill in August 2016 which has already damaged the Sungai Pulai biodiversity and ecosystem and the damages done during the construction period, why are environmental and green based NGOs still silent about Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) until today?

*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.