No to Incinerator for Broga/ Beranang/ Semenyih/ Kajang and the rest of Malaysia

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No to Incinerator for Broga/ Beranang/ Semenyih/ Kajang and the rest of Malaysia

Open Letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
by Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew

(Petaling Jaya, Friday): Dear Prime Minister, On 20 June 2003, I have written an open letter to the former Prime Minister Dato Seri Mahathir Mohamad on the issue of the Broga incinerator, urging him to put a stop to the RM1.5 billion project.

Mahathir did not respond well with my open letter, but instead lashed out at all who opposed the project vehemently. He has since retired from his office for almost a year now, but the threat of the Broga incinerator is even more, now that the detailed EIA report for the project has been approved by the Ministry of Science, Environment and Technology.

I like to bring the matter to your attention and sincerely hope that you can use your good office to put a stop to the project for the sake of the people in Broga in particular and all Malaysians in general. I am now reproducing the said open letter to explain our case to you.

DAP Selangor has received numerous complaints from the residents of Broga/Beranang / Semenyih/ Kajang and other parts of Malaysia on the proposed mega incinerator project. The main fears of the residents are that the said incinerator will not be safe and certainly brings severe damage to their health, besides causing a serious depreciation in value to their properties in the effected areas.

More than 10,000 residents from the area have signed in a protest signature campaign initiated and organized by the residents about two months ago, soon after the government decided to move the project from Kg Bohol, Puchong to Broga.

We hereby express our strong objection to the proposed Broga incinerator for the following reasons:

1. No incinerators, regardless technology, size and manufacturer could be considered absolutely safe in this world. The proposed gasification fluidized-bed, ash-melting incinerator, which is considered as the latest technology used in Japan, is of no exception. There is no document or record to show that this type of incineration is certainly safe and sound. The biggest incinerator of this kind happens to be a pilot project found in Japan, with the capacity of burning 300 tonnes a day. The manufacturer of this pilot incinerator is none other than Ebara Corporation, the same company awarded with the contract to design and build the largest incinerator in the world in Broga, with a record capacity of burning up to 1,500 tonnes of rubbish a day! Numerous reports have shown that this technology is not stable and problematic, and it has caused Ebara a lot of fund to fix the technical problem.

2. The proposed site for the incinerator project sits right in the precious Semenyih water catchments area. The water supply from the Semenyih River and other tributaries nearby are currently serving more than 333

residential areas, with a population of about 2 million in the Klang Valley and Putrajaya (see attached press cutting). Any contamination occurs in the area will have a far-reaching and serious consequences to the residents and other Malaysians in general.

3. The cost of the proposed project is said to be more than RM1.5 billion. It is estimated to require another RM50 million every year for maintenance and repair. But the life span of the incinerator is no more than 21 years. This exorbitant cost is simply not justifiable compared to other options and alternatives. It works out to about RM240 to burn just one tonne of rubbish, compared to only about RM 20 per tonne for the traditional landfill method. This will definitely push up the quit rents and other utility bills and causing a big burden to ordinary taxpayers. This is something we Malaysians can never afford.

4. Ebara Corporation is in dire straits at the moment. The company is found contaminating the Hikiji River in Furukawa. The discharge of dioxin (a general name for a cancer-causing toxic agent produced by incineration of materials containing chlorides) to the river was said to be 8,100 times higher than the permitted level set by the Japanese authorities. Ebara is also found evading taxes to the Japanese Government, retrenched or "de-mobilized" hundreds of staff members and booked for causing damage to the environment. How could the Ministry of Housing and Local Government award such an important project to a company of such shoddy record?

5. The entire world is now saying NO to incinerators after realizing the disastrous consequences of this technology. Japan, USA, UK, Belgium, South Africa, Denmark and many other European countries are closing down their incinerators largely because of dioxin and other toxic discharge. The Philippines has even passed a law to ban all construction of incinerators in their country.

6. The Japanese Government, through its embassy office in Malaysia, has denied providing the soft loan for the project. It would simply means that Malaysians have to pay a very interest for the funding of the project. Your

ministry has yet to disclose the source of the funding to date. The citizens of Malaysia have the right to know who is behind the project financially since we are the ones who foot the bill eventually.

7. The project, in our opinion, has not only breached the natural law of justice and the trust of the people to the Government, it has also breached the following laws of the land, namely the Federal Constitution, the Local Government Act, the Banking & Financial Institutions Act, the Companies Act, the Foreign Investment Committee Regulations, the Town & Planning Act, and the Environment Control Act.

I hereby call on Datuk Seri to instruct the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and other relevant government authorities to terminate the contract given to Ebara Corporation, Japan immediately in order to safeguard the interest of the residents in Broga/ Beranang/ Semenyih/ Kajang and other Malaysians in general. This is in-line with your policy for a caring society and good governance.

It's time for the Malaysian Government to adopt the zero-waste management method used by other developed countries to resolve the ever-increasing piles of rubbish. DAP is always ready and willing to work with the Government to find a better solution for waste management in the country.

(17/9/2004)

* Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, DAP International & NGO Affairs Secretary