GEORGE TOWN: The state government has rebutted a report that Penang has received approval from the authorities to reclaim three parcels of land under the South Reclamation Scheme (SRS).
The approval under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) was reportedly obtained from the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said that some of the information in the report was incorrect as many details were still at the consultation stage.
“It will be shared with the media and stake holders when it is ready,“ Chow said in a statement issued from Parliament.
Up to now, no approval has yet to be received by the state in a formal manner, said Chow with regards to the EIA.
“With regards to the report, the state would like to make it clear that there are factual errors and reckless assumptions made in it and irresponsibly misrepresented to the public.”
“Since the information is not from an authorised source, the state shall not bear any responsibility for the misinformation.”
When the EIA approval is obtained, a detailed design will then be worked on before tenders are called in the first half of 2020, said Chow.
State executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin, who is in charge of agriculture, said that the state was still working on an ex-gratia payment to more than 800 inshore fishermen, who is believed will be affected by the reclamation project.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) has also criticised the report.
SAM president Meenakshi Raman said that there were serious concerns raised including on how damaging the reclamation will be to the very sensitive marine ecosystem, fishery resources and how there has been no EIA on the sand mining which ought to be done before approving of the project.
“Also we had questioned the population projections for the islands which were not sound. It is alarming that these important issues have been swept aside.”
“We had also questioned if the Perak government had been consulted given the sand mining is in the Perak coastal waters.”
There needs to be more clarification, said Meenakshi.
