Sungai Pinang Tourist Jetty Project A Waste, Says Azmi

PENANG, March 5 (Bernama) -- Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has regarded the building of a tourist jetty at Sungai Pinang costing RM3.4 million as a mistake and a waste.
He said the project was approved without prior study as it was located at probably the most polluted river in Asia with a toxic level 5 or poisonous level.
Speaking to reporters here today, he said the project, which should be of priority instead was cleaning up the river
"The jetty which was ready last January was meant as a tourism project, but because of the deplorable state of the river since several years ago, the jetty is now being used by fishermen.
"In future if any party wants to undertake a project, the officials must go down to the ground to see whether it is suitable and beneficial. Don't do it just because there's money to spare," he added when inspecting the project to clean and rehabilitate Sungai Pinang here.
Azmi also called on local authorities and state governments to impose a condition that all new buildings should face the river.
"Most of the buildings in this country have their backs to the rivers, and hence have easily become dumping grounds for the uncaring."
In light of this, he said, the government was asking for the cooperation of the people and private sector to help keep the rivers clean.
"Since the 'Love Our Rivers' campaign is a failure, we have to look for a new approach in rebranding the campaign so that all parties feel responsible in preserving our rivers."
He said 20 of the country's rivers had been identified to be polluted at level 5, and that Sungai Pinang was among the worst.
"The government will also amend the Environment Quality Act 1994 to impose a mandatory sentence on those guilty of polluting rivers.
"Many people do not realise that dumping unwanted electronic items including handphones and computers into the rivers is dangerous as they can become toxic to the rivers," he added.


tunku : it’s all about implementing the work, you can keep rebranding the campaign over and over again but if there’s no hardwork in it you will never succeed. Just see rivers in some countries , they are so clean and nice, you need to educate young children ( in schools) about how river are precious to us. There’s a river near my kampong where we used to swim in it,sometimes even drink it, now if you see the river it’s just like teh tarik colour. Government should really look into this and make our environment issues as top priority. Our future generation will curse us. Put those responsible behind bars, as this is a very big crime to our nature which beautifully created by GOD.
Azmi said that in future if any party wants to undertake a project, the officials must go down to the ground to see whether it is suitable and beneficial. Don't do it just because there's money to spare.This is happening everywhere, contractors are given so many projects that actually not a priority.An example in Kepala Batas where project are given to some contractors to renovate government quarters which is still in good condition, just simply changing doors, putting new tiles etc.This is not including the RM3 million given to the each division recently.The best part is the work done is lesser that the price paid.