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The Star Online > Nation A heap of landfill
woes Besides causing social
and environmental problems, landfills are also economically detrimental. Local councils are
spending between 30% and 80% of their assessment collection for waste
treatment. And, these councils do nothing more than make
the garbage pile up into a seemingly endless problem. The bad management of
most landfills has resulted in several “time bombs”. One “exploded” in
Sept-ember when leachate from a landfill in Semenyih contaminated Sungai Kembong and Sungai Beranang, the intake points of the Sungai
Semenyih water treatment plant. The plant was forced
to close down due to high levels of ammonia, causing a 14-hour water supply
disruption, which resulted in about a million consumers in Petaling, Hulu Langat, Sepang, Kuala Langat and Putrajaya being
affected by it. Such problems,
according to Association of Environmental Consultants and Contractors of
Malaysia chairman Datuk Dr Abu Bakar
Jaafar, were bound to happen. “Virtually all
landfills in
According to the Housing and Local
Government Ministry, there are 176 operating landfill sites, another 114
end-of-life sites and only eight sanitary landfills in the country. This means that only eight
landfills were constructed according to specifications while the rest are
polluting the environment and ruining public health in varying degrees. And, then there are the illegal
ones. “When local authorities need to discard waste, they just find some
place and dump everything there without any planning, engineering and even
site selection to see if it is safe. When people start complaining about
stench, pests and scavengers, they just bring lorries full of soil to cover
them,” he said. Dr Abu Bakar
is the former director-general of the Department of Environment, where he had
worked for about 20 years. “I was kept busy by landfill fires
that often broke out in the middle of the night. Some scavengers burned
mattresses to retrieve metal parts, leading to landfills on fire,” he said. Even the closure of landfills was
done shoddily. “Often, closures did not meet standards and before you know
it, low-cost flats and housing projects were built on these sites.” “I would not be surprised if one
day a house blows up all of a sudden as there is gas in these badly closed
landfills.” he said. Dr Abu Bakar
said he was disappointed that the situation had not improved much after all
these years. A waste management report submitted by He said the Environmental Quality
Act addressed mainly pollution caused by factories, while only the Local
Government Act, and Street, Drainage and Building Act addressed wastes
produced at home. “Even so, the laws are ineffective
and outdated,” he said. Dr Abu Bakar
proposed a comprehensive structure for the treatment of solid waste, covering
three categories namely dry, perishable and toxic waste from home, and
eventually be recycled or be used to regenerate energy. “An effective structure for waste
management requires the commitment of at least 11 ministries,” he said. “If that can be in place, we won’t
need landfills.” |
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