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PETALING JAYA: The latest water disruption caused by Sungai Semenyih pollution should focus on the ‘polluter pays’ principle, says Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye (Photo).
The president of the Alliance for Safe Community said those who caused the pollution should bear the cost of handling it to avoid damage to human health and the environment.
“It stands to reason that before the polluter can be asked to pay, he must first be identified.
“The question is, why weren’t the polluters identified earlier?” Lee said.
The latest incident, which will affect more than 300,000 Air Selangor account holders at 273 locations in Selangor, only came to light after authorities received reports of a foul odor, similar to that of a corpse, coming from the river, he said. Read.
“This incident comes in the immediate aftermath of the recent contamination of Sungai Gong which also required the shutdown of running water, causing misery to countless account holders for the umpteenth time.
“In both cases, the authorities only acted after the fact, not before as they should have done,” he added.
Lee, however, praised Air Selangor for activating its emergency response plan to provide assistance to affected consumers.
“It’s okay to take polluters to court later, but what about consumers and their suffering, for which they don’t receive compensation? Not even a guarantee that it won’t happen again. Enough is enough ”, he lamented.
Authorities should do more to prevent such cases from occurring, he said.
“It is not difficult to identify factories and activities along the rivers – upstream, mid-river and downstream – and then carry out regular checks at these facilities to make sure they comply with existing rules and regulations,” he added.
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