Huge M'sian waste project runs into hurdle

reelpower

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,194207,00.html?

Published May 4, 2006

Huge M'sian waste project runs into hurdle
Govt to review RM1.5b incinerator in Selangor


By S JAYASANKARAN
IN KUALA LUMPUR

Email this article
Print article
Feedback

THE construction of the region's biggest waste incinerator, to be located in the rural hamlet of Broga in central Selangor state, has run into some hiccups.


According to several businessmen familiar with the project, the technical committee of Malaysia's Ministry of Local Government and Housing has decided on a second look at the project, raising concerns among those involved that the RM1.52 billion (S$663 million) project could be scaled down or even scrapped.

It isn't clear why the review is being considered but the businessmen said that it could involve the growing anxiety in government over the environmental side effects of waste disposal projects.

On April 28, for example, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that 16 open landfills situated near water intake points in Peninsular Malaysia would be closed with immediate effect.

This followed allegations that discharge from an open landfill had led to high ammonia levels in the Selangor River resulting in some residents receiving foul smelling water through their taps.

The re-think on waste disposal projects underscores what has long been perceived as a problem with the government - a tendency to react to events rather than to think through and address long-term solutions to obvious problems.





The issue of landfills, said the businessmen, had been pointed out to government as far back as six years ago but nothing was done. Similarly, an idea to mandate recycling as a means to tackle waste generation has been sitting on the statute books for over 10 years, the businessmen said.

For its part, the incinerator project has been engulfed in controversy from the word go. That it's necessary cannot be denied: Kuala Lumpur produces 2,700 tonnes of waste a day which is more than its disposal sites can handle.

Unfortunately, the scale of the incinerator project - it can burn 1,500 tonnes a day - almost inevitably guaranteed that no neighbourhood wanted it in their backyards for environmental reasons. The incinerator would have been one of the largest of its kind in the world, capable of burning six times more waste than current facilities.

Indeed, the first place selected for the project was Puchong, a working class industrial township southwest of Kuala Lumpur. Its residents raised such a howl that Ong Ka Ting, the then minister of housing and local government, beat a hasty retreat.

Broga, a rural outpost to the south of KL, was Mr Ong's next choice but even its residents attempted to stop the project by way of a court injunction. The injunction has since been set aside and the project was awarded to a consortium led by Japanese company Ebara together with Harta Suma, a private Malaysian construction company.

Even so, it isn't clear if the project can be scrapped without the government having to pay hefty sums in compensation to the consortium. Businessmen noted that government had to fork out RM100 million to the developer of the stalled bridge project to replace the causeway linking Singapore.