GEORGE TOWN: The Department of Environment (DoE) needs to step up its actions in the face of challenges from climate change and the smuggling in of waste from developed and neighbouring nations.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia research officer S. Mageswary said there was a need for significant improvement if Malaysia wants to be effective in safeguarding her environment, she said.
Mageswary said that the DoE needed to expand its outreach to include more communities to fight the smuggling of electronic and plastic waste.
Responding to reports that there was a need for DoE to collaborate more with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to check on present day challenges, Mageswary said that it was done before but it now needed to be more effective and frequent.
In Penang, when the NGOs opposed the reclamation, the DoE needs to spend more time listening to their grievances, Mageswary told theSun here.
For example, Mageswary said the DoE had sanctioned the reclamation on land off Bayan Lepas here without listening to the objections of the NGOs.
She hoped the DoE would change its policies in line with the proposed Environmental Protection Act which is scheduled to replace the Environmental Quality Act law.
The DoE office here could not be reached for comment.
