KUCHING: The Sarawak Land and Survey Department has been instructed to increase its monitoring and enforcement on sand mining activities in the state.
State Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, said this was in line with the power vested in the department under the State Land Code.
“However, I would like to inform that it will be difficult for the department to ensure total enforcement as the state is big and has many rivers.
“As such, enforcement activities will need a lot of manpower and logistics,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
He was commenting on the Auditor-General’s Report 2009 which stated that Magna Focus Sdn Bhd (MFSB), a subsidiary of the Land Custody and Development Authority (Pelita), and six other companies, had been given the licence to mine sand without having to provide the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
The A-G’s Report also stated that illegal sand mining activities in the state had also caused riverbank erosion, created unnecessary lakes and lagoons, as well as water pollution.
“MFSB has been given six months to prepare the EIA report to ensure no disruption to sand supply in the market,” he said.
Awang Tengah also said the ministry had also suspended the operations of the six other companies, effective July 1.
He said these companies would only be allowed to continue operating after they submitted an approved EIA report.
“So far, only one of the companies has been allowed to continue its operation after its EIA report was approved,” he added. — Bernama