KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) believes that the urging made by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun to errant oil palm plantation owners in the Kinabatangan to cease discharging effluents into the water way, is a waste of time.
“Sepa believes the grace period has expired. The situation is in a state of total frustration after years of complaints, advice, dialogues, deadlines after deadlines given by the minister himself,” Sepa president Wong Tack told The Borneo Post yesterday.
He said calling for cooperation from those involved in the industry would be a waste of time and ineffective.
“Now is the time for stern action. Law and regulations must be strictly enforced,” he said, adding that those agencies empowered to do so but are unable to safeguard the State’s resources must be questioned and corrupt practices must be exposed and punished.
He also said that Sepa would set up a task force to deal with this issue.
“We will work with other stakeholders to act on the issue. Action is expected to kick off by September,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sepa advisor S M Muthu expressed his support to Masidi, who recently expressed his expectation of plantation owners to fulfill the promise they had made to him to stop polluting the Kinabatangan river.
“We are supportive of Masidi because we know he is very concerned and wants to do the best for the people,” he said.
Muthu added that the industry players in the palm oil industry had always given the hefty cost of cleaning up as their excuse for not doing anything.
“But palm oil companies are making huge profits so much so that costing should not be a problem,” he said.
He added that whatever the reasons were, the people’s well-being should override the issue.
Muthu also called on the people of Sandakan to wake up and to give their full support to Masidi on the matter or risk drinking contaminated water from Kinabatangan for years to come.
“The people of Sandakan depend on Kinabatangan for their water supply. If they continue to keep quiet, they will have no choice but to drink polluted water derived from the river. Hence, they better conduct some preventive measures now before the pollution becomes more serious,” he said.