DoE: Illegal E-waste Factories Must be Shut Down Immediately

He said the department has submitted a request to expand and improve staffing to reach up to 3,000 personnel.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Illegal electronic waste (e-waste) factories and unauthorised dumping sites must be dismantled at the earliest possible stage, before any environmental damage occurs, the Department of Environment (DoE) said.

DoE director-general Datuk Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar said prompt enforcement by all relevant agencies is critical to preventing pollution.

'Illegal factories must be shut down immediately. Don't wait until pollution happens before calling in the DoE to investigate,' he said.

'The first offence is already illegal — the factory should be demolished. Why wait for pollution before acting?'

 'As for illegal dumping grounds that later catch fire, these sites should never exist in the first place.

'Eventually, people will dump waste there and a fire will break out… then they call the DoE. The correct step is to eliminate them from the start,' he said during an engagement session at a hotel here today.

Also present were DoE deputy director-general (Operations) Dr Norhazni Mat Sari and other senior department officials.

Wan Abdul Latiff added that the department is working to strengthen cooperation with other government agencies.

'At the ports, we work with the Customs Department to inspect containers suspected of carrying illegal e-waste.

'We are doing our best to carry out our responsibilities,' he said.

On staffing, Wan Abdul Latiff noted that the DoE currently has 1,113 officers and personnel nationwide, tasked with monitoring and enforcing environmental regulations across various issues — including e-waste.

He said the department has submitted a request to expand and improve staffing to reach up to 3,000 personnel.

'We are certainly understaffed in terms of enforcement. We have more than 63,000 industrial premises nationwide, and with just 1,113 personnel, it's impossible to cover them all in a year.

'Based on past experience, we can only cover between 18,000 to 20,000 industrial premises per year. Ideally, each factory should be visited at least twice annually — preferably four times — and that's not including over 10,000 public complaints we receive each year,' he explained.

He added that the DoE aspires to have at least one office in every district.

'We have not reached that stage yet. But environmental issues are increasingly being prioritised, including by lawmakers who have voiced that the DoE should be strengthened and that more positions should be created — which is the basis of our appeal to the Public Service Department,' he said.

 Courtesy:www.nst.com.my

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