BINTULU: Self-compliance on environmental conservation and preservation among industrial players is more effective than regulatory enforcement by the Department of Environment (DOE).
“Previously, people were scared with DOE but now we are more friendly because our style of enforcement is totally different,” said DOE director-general Dato’ Dr Ahmad Kamarulnajuib Che Ibrahim.
He said environmental conservation requires a concerted effort from all parties.
“The laws, rules and industrial standards are in place and updated periodically by the DOE to ensure that environmental conservation and industrial development are not mutually exclusive, to ensure sustainable development,” he said when officiating at the opening of a seminar on ‘Environmental Legal Requirement and Compliance’ at a hotel here yesterday.
The seminar attended by some 200 representatives from major industry players in Bintulu was jointly organised by DOE and Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd in conjunction with the World Earth Day theme ‘Environmental and Climate Literacy’.
Also present at the event were MLNG senior general manager Pandai Othman, MLNG Health, Safety and Environment Department head Mursyide M Ali, DOE state assistant directors Amirul Aripin and Mohamad Zaihan Lek.
Ahmad noted that compliance to rules and standards by industry players is still very much dependent on the inspection and enforcement by the DOE.
“This shows the level of awareness among industrial players on the laws, rules and standards is still lacklustre,” he said.
Thus, self-compliance regulations, he said, are being introduced by DOE but deterrent enforcement and court action still continues for non-compliance.
“Among the self-compliance elements introduced and being enforced are competent operator, performance monitoring and continuous emission monitoring systems,” he said.
According to him, every operator of air pollution control equipment, industrial effluent treatment systems (IETS) and scheduled waste management have to be competent and certified by the Malaysian Environmental Institute as a competent operator.
“Based on DOE’s inspection, the compliance on the need to have competent operators was good and to-date in Sarawak, there are a total of 107 competent persons for scheduled waste management, 15 competent persons for air pollution control equipment and 38 competent persons for industrial effluent treatment systems.
“We hope the numbers of competent persons will increase in order to create a sense of ownership in the industry,” he added.
Meanwhile Pandai said the seminar was the best platform for industry players to learn about the latest requirements on environmental legal requirements and compliance, for example, DOE Guided Self Regulations, CAR 2014, Waste Characterisation and others.
He also hoped the seminar can increase the awareness of industry players on their respective responsibilities in environmental conservation.
“MLNG is committed towards environmental preservation and conservation by having various related projects such as the Reclaimer project, industrial effluent treatment system project, Marlin project and Beacon project,” Pandai said.
He also reiterated MLNG’s commitment to work hand-in-hand with the DOE to conserve and preserve the environment.