Media Statement
by MP for Seputeh, Teresa Kok
in Petaling Jaya
on Tuesday, 22^nd October 2002

The Kg. Bohol incinerator should be relocated to Putrajaya

The government’s decision to construct an RM1.4 billion solid waste thermal treatment plant in Kg. Bohol, Puchong has been a matter of grave concern to a large number of residents staying in the vicinity, as a result of the dire health and environmental effects of the incinerator on the local community. To date, the Housing and Local Government Ministry, which is entrusted with implementing the project, has failed to address the fears of the residents. (An estimated 1 million residents living within a 5-kilometre radius from the earmarked site will be affected.)

On Oct 9, 2002, Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui had replied to my question in Parliament on the proposed incinerator project in Kg. Bohol, Puchong, which unfortunately, I found to be unsatisfactory.

Firstly, I am disappointed that Chin had chosen to avoid my queries on the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the project concerned. Instead, the deputy minister claimed that there was no need for him to address the EIA-related questions since the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment had already approved the EIA report. It is pertinent that those questions be answered since a close examination of the report would reveal many glaring inconsistencies and flaws.

I am equally dismayed that Chin had also failed to answer other questions raised by me on the incinerator project, such as the exorbitant cost of constructing the plant, the question of technology transfer, the high operation expenditure which translates into RM270 to incinerate a ton of rubbish, the type of technology utilized, reference to incinerators in other countries and the health danger posed by the release of dioxin.

The inability of the ministry concerned to justify the decision to construct the treatment plant by providing convincing and concrete answers is truly disconcerting considering the serious health implications of such a project. In fact, the Minister of Housing and Local Government, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting should have personally presented himself in Parliament to address the issue.

Thus far, 135,000 residents have signed a petition opposing the construction of the incinerator and they have stood firm on their insistence that the incinerator should be shifted elsewhere to a safer site and not right in the middle of a densely populated area. The government should therefore take cognizance of the protest of the people and relocate the incinerator. The government has also claimed that the incinerator is safe and poses no health hazard. If the incinerator is as safe as it is made out to be, does the government dare to relocate it to Putrajaya?

If anyone should be subjected to such a risky experiment, it is the very people who are in power who have been trying to convince us that the incinerator is safe and certainly not the 1 million residents living around Kg. Bohol.  I therefore suggest the government relocate the incinerator to Putrajaya so that the Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet and government servants who work and live there can become “guinea pigs” to prove to the nation that the incinerator is truly safe and will not cause cancer to those staying near it. Only after it has proven to be safe, 20 years later when its lifespan is up, should the incinerator be relocated to other areas.