PETALING JAYA: Stop giving any more chances to illegal factories in Selangor and take action against them immediately, demands Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan (pic).
He also hit out at Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari for allowing one final chance to unlicensed factories and landowners to legalise their operations by the end of this year following the last state executive council decision in 2018.
“After 12 years, and many water crises in the state, the state government only now wants to act, and was even willing to extend until the end of 2020?
“The people want immediate action. 1.2 million users were affected badly due to the factory’s activities that were left unmonitored.
“Please do not wait until the next water crisis then only you panic,” he said in a statement on Thursday (Sept 10).
Amiruddin had said on Sept 9 that the state government would not hesitate to demolish building structures which have an impact on environmental pollution if they (landowners and illegal factories) fail to do so within the stipulated period.
“We have been offering to carry out the legalisation process since 2008. The decision of the last state executive council in 2018 was to extend the action until 2020. After 2020, we will demolish,” Amiruddin had said.
Shahril also asked the state government to explain why it decided to give an extension to illegal factories.
“After so many challenges, why can’t the state government take action now?
“This is not the case of small business operators that are requesting to be licensed and some considerations in order to help the economy.
“These factories are illegal. Some of them are polluting our water sources and causing multiple problems and losses to the rakyat,” he added.
Amirudin had also said that a factory in the Sungai Gong Industrial Area in Rawang was the alleged source of the odour pollution that caused four Sungai Selangor water treatment plants (LRA) to suspend operations.
He added that the factory was alleged to have released solvent into Sungai Gong which flows into Sungai Sembah, one of the main rivers of Sungai Selangor.
A total of 1,292 areas in the Klang Valley, Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat, involving nearly 1.2 million consumer accounts, had been affected by unscheduled water cuts. -The Star.