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Councillor Johari Kassim said many of the small and medium scale (SME) factories had been operating up to 10 years without licences and certificates of fitness (CF).

“Our objective is not to close down these factories. We just want to legalise their operations and get them to settle their dues to the council,” he said in an interview.

He said the Central Seberang Prai (SPT) district had 90 illegal factories, followed by North Seberang Prai (SPU) with 51 factories and South Seberang Prai (SPS) with nine.

Johari showing photos of illegal factories.

Johari said many factories had also failed to get necessary clearance from the Department of Environment (DOE) as well as the state Fire and Rescue Services Department before applying for CFs for their buildings.

“In SPT, many factories are involved in the processing of rubber, plastic, chemical and wooden products.

“In SPU, there are curry powder producers, coffee bean makers, brick processors and bakeries besides many rice mills, sawmills and feed mills,” he said.

In SPS, he said the illegal factories included a sardine-processing factory, a cloth-dyeing factory and a charcoal-processing factory.

Johari said there was also a foreign chemical factory in Bukit Minyak, Juru, which had been operating illegally since 1997.

“The loss of assessment revenue from these factories is quite substantial,” he said, citing a feedmil which did not pay RM17,000 in assessment over the past 10 years.

Johari said that after he and fellow councillors raised the issue of illegal factories with council president Farizan Darus, an Illegal and Unlicensed Factories Monitoring Ad-hoc Committee was set up in September.

He said the council would inspect the illegal premises in stages, starting with those located in Prai and Bukit Minyak.

The committee, he said, had so far met the owners of nine illegal factories who were given till the end of next month to get their documents.

“We will get the relevant authorities to inspect these premises to ensure they complied with the council’s requirements.

“We will expedite the processing of their CF applications to ensure they are legalised in the shortest time possible,” he said.

Johari said that the council would not hesitate to issue them stop work orders if they failed to meet the deadline.

By DERRICK VINESH
source : The Star online 10.11.2008

Hence, the council as the local government bears the responsibility to regulate and check on these illegal factories to ensure that it will not cause environmental damage and health hazard to the nearby residential areas.

written by tan \\ tags: illegal factories, Seberang Perai

The problem of river pollution is a serious one in Malaysia, where the tendency is to treat rivers like drains. A lot of education is needed to inculcate respect for the rivers and regard them as a national treasure.

The solution is to create a buffer between the river and housing estates. No house should be built along river banks and there should be a river reserve of adequate distance between the houses and the river. There should be heavy penalties for infringements.

The question of illegal sewerage should not arise if housing projects are required to provide proper sewerage systems before a project is approved. Road drainage should be properly connected to a proper system that prevents untreated water being

channelled into rivers. Ideally, deep sewerage is the answer but it depends on its availability.

River management is a complex task and planning is needed to ensure that rivers are kept free of pollution at its source. A good example is Singapore, which succeeded in cleaning up its rivers years ago after careful planning and enforcement so that they are now natural assets and provide recreation for tourists and locals.

Keeping a river clean involves stopping all the sources of pollution. Rivers provide an eco-system for wildlife. There is no

need to destroy their aesthetic quality by concretising them as in parts of Kuala Lumpur until they look like drains. Illegal squatters should be housed away from river banks.

It will not hurt to start a trust fund to protect and regenerate all the rivers that run through the cities because they should be part of any modern city’s landscape. When the public treat their rivers like drains and rubbish disposal channels, it is no wonder they are polluted and germ-ridden.

The once-beautiful sandy beach along Gurney Drive in Penang is now a mud flat. What a shame to still see open drains finishing into the sea and adding to the pollution. If people are serious about conserving their environment, they have to take immediate steps to clean up their act.

Both state and federal governments need to get involved and provide the funding for cleaning up the rivers. It has been a neglected priority.

Polluted rivers and seas are a physical curse to any place and anyone who has visited a place with a polluted and stinking river meandering through it will know what I mean.

Cleaning up the rivers is a worthwhile pursuit for the public. The Government should take the lead or be prepared to fund the NGO doing the job. The sooner the better.

By STEVE OH, Kajang (The Star 6/11/2008).

written by tan \\ tags: illegal factories, Seberang Perai