Najib: Enforce sewage law strictly to protect rivers

05 August, 2007

PEKAN: Sewage treatment regulations will now be enforced without exception to protect rivers from filth, the deputy prime minister said. Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the authorities would no longer listen to excuses as sewage had been identified as the main cause of river pollution in the country.

He said the tough stand was meant for all, whether individual home owners or firms running sewage treatment plants.

"We need to start with stricter enforcement and adherence to the law," he said after handing out financial assistance to fishermen at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Convention Hall here yesterday.

Najib, who is the Pekan member of parliament, was commenting on a finding by the Department of Environment (DOE) that 91 per cent of river pollution was due to sewage seeping into the natural water system.

DOE director-general Datuk Keizrul Abdullah was quoted on Monday as saying that the study, carried out two years ago, identified poorly treated or raw sewage as the main river pollutant.

Keizrul said the flow of sewage into rivers was mainly due to the unwillingness of many owners of homes and premises to get treatment services for their septic tanks.

Najib said enforcement officers would now be required to go on inspection rounds more frequently and not compromise with those who failed to treat their sewage according to regulations.

He said state governments had also been ordered to crack down on those who flouted the regulations or cause pollution in rivers by other means.

Najib said protecting rivers from pollution was a priority for the government as it could not afford to continue cleaning them up without dealing with the source of the problem.

"Once a river is polluted, it would cost us a lot to clean it up. We are willing to do this but it would have been wiser to prevent the pollution in the first place."

There are currently 16 rivers categorised by the DOE as critically polluted. The majority of them are in the developing states of Penang, Selangor and Johor.

The government has set a target of rehabilitating them by 2020.