Health impact assessment needed for Jelutong project, says group
GEORGE TOWN : A Penang residents' group has urged environmental regulators to reject a developer's environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a planned reclamation project next to the old Jelutong landfill, saying it breaks the rules by leaving out a full health impact assessment (HIA).
In a statement, the Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee said the project's proponents ignored the need for a HIA, a new requirement under the law since January for such a project.
'The developer's failure to include a HIA is not an oversight, it's a direct violation of law.
'The environment department (DoE) has clear legal authority and constitutional obligation to reject this incomplete and non-compliant proposal,' the group's spokesman, Dr K Ganesh, said.
The RM1 billion reclamation plan involves digging up and rehabilitating the closed Jelutong landfill and reclaiming adjacent coastal land north of the Penang Bridge to temporarily dump the unearthed rubbish from the landfill, besides carrying out mixed development.
Ganesh said the EIA failed to consider long-term risks from dust, gas and noise, and ignored most residents in its social study.
The group has demanded a full HIA, a certified landfill closure plan, and strong legal steps to protect Middle Bank — a mudflat rich in marine life and seagrass — and public health.
He said the group met the Penang DoE yesterday and sent in a formal protest memo, outlining a few demands, including rejecting the developer's EIA.
The group learnt that 98.6% of the public comments during the EIA public display period were against the project, Ganesh added.
The Penang government signed the deal to rehabilitate the island's only sanitary landfill with PLB Engineering Bhd in 2020 to carry out the project over four to five years.
However, no visible works have begun. The 65ha site includes 36ha of landfill and 29ha of new land next to the Karpal Singh Drive waterfront.
Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow previously defended the project, saying it would not encroach on the Middle Bank. He had said that the reclamation was needed to create space for a safe landfill clean-up.
He said once the site is cleaned up, it will be handed to the developer for mixed development, and the state would get back 20% to 30% of the reclaimed land as part of the deal.
More recently, Chow said the Penang government may consider downsizing the reclaimed area following a meeting with the group.
However, the residents said the developer's own report shows the landfill can be rehabilitated within its current boundary making reclamation unnecessary.
FMT has contacted local government exco member Hng Mooi Lye for comment.
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