Datu Len Talif Salleh
KUCHING: The company licensed to quarry the historical Mount Serumbu in Bau cannot do anything on the ground because it has not met the terms and conditions of the approval.
Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh said the state government was now looking at ways it could stop the company from operating considering that it had not met the terms and conditions.
“We are looking at all the possibilities to mitigate the problem but we don’t want to jump the gun. We are looking into all the issues from both sides,” he said when met at State Legislative Assembly here yesterday.
Len, who is also Belawai assemblyman, said the licence was issued to the company in 1997 but since then it had not done much.
“No EIA report was presented and consequently no EIA report was approved for this purpose (quarrying).
“So if they want to operate now, they have to comply with all the terms and conditions.” Controller of the state Natural Resource and Environment Board (NREB) Peter Sawal also confirmed on Monday that the company had not submitted an environmental impact report (EIA) for approval.
A peaceful demonstration was held by some 50 people, including Chinese, Malay and Bidayuh community leaders, near Mount Serumbu on Sunday.
The residents from 17 villages in the vicinity of Mount Serumbu want the government to revoke the licence of the quarry company claiming that the area was their ancestral land.
Their advisor, Stephen Sinyum Mitit, said the area around the mountain had been cultivated by their forefathers well before the Brooke era and it was steeped in history and had vast tourism potential.
Among others, the first White Rajah James Brooke built a cottage there and the mountain also boasts world renowned British scientist Alfred Wallace’s Trail.