Report: Hundreds of thousands of residents near Klang suffer from illegal industrial waste dump, gas from scavengers' fire
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — Residents near Kapar, Meru and Jeram reportedly complained of hazardous gas coming from industrial waste that was illegally dumped nearby, which has been exacerbated by illegal burnings.
Utusan Malaysia reported that this affected more than 300,000 residents, with the villagers blaming scavengers for setting off fires to find scrap iron within the waste piles made up of plastics, coppers and other materials.
“I’m confident that just some of the fires were caused by the hot weather, while the rest were caused by intrusions from irresponsible individuals,” Kampung Serdang Resident Association Chairman Rohkim @ Rahim Iska was reported telling the Malay daily.
“In fact, I saw them running across the ridge when I came there to inspect myself. They entered through Bukit Kerayong because the route from Jalan Klang-Sabak Bernam was already closed.”
Rohkim said numerous complaints had been lodged with various government departments and agencies but to no avail, he has since urged local authorities including the police and the Department of Environment to take immediate action and for the waste to be disposed of.
He also said that the villagers had urged the authorities to reveal footage from the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) camera installed near the electricity substation pole to ascertain the real situation in the area.
“In the past, we urged them to install CCTV cameras, but when those were installed they refused to reveal the video footage to the residents. What do you want to hide if the area has become an illegal garbage dump?” he asked.
Utusan reported that the issue has been ongoing since 2011, with over 10 metre piles of plastic and iron scraps from industrial and domestic waste dumped illegally in an area pf approximately 2.2 hectares near Kampung Suara, Kampung Tambak Jawa and Kampung Sungai Serdang there.
