'Penalise those exploiting loophole'
Published on: Friday, May 08, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun called for action against those who exploit an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) loophole to carry out hill cutting works in Penampang. He demanded the authorities use all laws available to them to penalise the culprits and recalcitrants involved. The actions of the said individuals are said to have caused the Moyog River to be saddled with mud and sudden increase of heat due to the loss of vegetation via earth work removal and hill cutting in the flood prone district.
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"The District Council and the Land Office, I am sure, have relevant laws applicable … use all legal channels possible to penalise these culprits and recalcitrant individuals," he said, in reference to a Daily Express front page report on Thursday. The District Office has issued a stop work order on hill cutting activities in the district pending submission of development plans for approval by the respective landowners. Masidi wants those responsible to face the full brunt of the law for manipulating the regulatory requirements to escape an EIA prior to getting approval to carry out such works. On April 17, Masidi had exposed that a number of construction firms had used the loophole at an environmental seminar through the use of short-term earth removal permits from district offices on the pretext of dredging earth below the EIA limit of under 1,000 cubic metres.
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However, the constant application in "totality, the amount of permits they applied for warrant for an EIA clearance, as well as the volume of earth being dredged," he said. ON another note, Masidi said the State's RM6.5 billion tourism industry will be at risk if all its wildlife animals completely vanished from the face of the earth.
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Updating on the Sumatran Rhinos, he said no new sightings have been made in the last 18 months, reiterating the fact that Sabah is "facing the real prospect of Sumatran Rhinos going extinct for good." "So it is likely there are only three left in Sabah," he said. Sabah's iconic wildlife are on the brink of extinction, no thanks to the "greed" of poachers and natives who have captured the animals to be sold in the local market, instead of personal consumption, he pointed out. He also maintained that issues revolving around Sabah's iconic wildlife such as the orangutan, Sumatran Rhinos and the Pygmy Elephants must be tread carefully and not exploited for commercial purposes. For instance the use of the orangutan image in the Hard Rock Café advertisements recently had not only raised the angst of Sabah Netizens, but was also reason enough for international animal rights groups to launch a campaign of boycott and condemnation. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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