Prepare to be horrified!
I found this at Free Malaysia Today. How anyone could behave like this just for a photo opportunity is beyond belief. Shame on A Famosa and shame on all the tourists who collude with this obscene practice by posing for photos. What's wrong with you?
Last Thursday they agreed to give Worldwide Holdings Berhad's environment division Worldwide Landfills Sdn. Bhd. RM6.5 million of rate payers money to close an old landfill that the federal government had already spent RM2 million to close in 2004. And if this isn't crazy enough, on November 25th 2008, Mentri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, gave a privately funded green tech company the go-ahead to rehabilitate the same landfill. Furthermore, a representative from that green tech company was instructed to attend Thursday's meeting, asked to sign the attendance register before the meeting started and was then barred from the meeting itself.
The landfill in question, Sg.Kembong, is the 85 acre site at Bukit Mahkota near Beranang, Selangor. Ever since the landfill was closed in 2004 there has been sporadic leachate contamination of the Bernanang and Semenyih rivers and this is currently being exacerbated by an illegal sand mining operation in the area which is eroding the river bank right back to the landfill.
CLEAR, the green tech company that M.B.Khalid appointed to clean up the site, have already contained the leachate away from the river and have started to mine the garbage to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF) which is used as a renewable energy source for steam turbines and cement kilns. Their Waste to Energy approach will leave the site clear of all garbage and contaminants so that it can be handed back to the state government for further development when their present 21-year lease runs out. The income CLEAR will get from the recoverable items plus RDF mined from the site allows them to offer this service free of charge to the Selangor government.
So why has the Selangor government now decided to give Worldwide Holdings Berhad RM6.5 million to close this site?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Selangor State Finance officer, Mohd Arif Bin AB Rahman (left) is the chairman of Worldwide Holdings Berhad and the head of PKNS, Othman Bin Hj.Omar (right) is a director of that same company.
Or maybe it's because Exco members Hassan Mohd. Ali and Ronnie Liu who are respectively in charge of waste management and the local authorities, are not on the same page as the chief minister.
As for Worldwide Holdings Berhad, their track record isn't that great. The Selangor State Government gave them RM80 million to build a waste transfer station in Section 21 Shah Alam which was due to be completed in 2007 but is still not operating. Furthermore, Worldwide's method of closing landfills doesn't entail removing and re-using the waste in the way thatthe CLEAR approach does. Both the Taman Beringen and Bukit Hitam landfills, which have recently been closed by Worldwide, have just been covered with soil and landscaped with grass and shrubs. And they charge between RM2-5 million for this service whereas the CLEAR solution is free.
So what can we learn from this:
1. Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim is obviously concerned about his state and the people who live in
it. By approving the rehabilitation project with CLEAR he didn't spend a single sen and in
exchange Selangor state get a pristine piece of land.
2. Exco members Hassan Mohd. Ali, and Ronnie Liu are incredibily inefficient or are deliberately
disrespecting their MB's authority. Either way this needs to be addressed.
3. Mohd Arif Bin AB. Rahman (State Finance Office) and Othman Bin Haji Omar (head of PKNS)
are using their positions to award contracts to themselves.
Selangor has 20 landfills waiting to be closed. Surely the decision as to whether to pay around RM120 million of rate payer's money to a company like Worldwide to do this, or to go for the free option offered by companies like CLEAR is a no brainer, isn't it?
This week, two countries are seeking to break the worldwide ban on ivory trading -- a decision that could wipe out whole elephant populations and bring these magnificent animals closer to extinction.
On April 9th 2009, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water headed by Peter Chin Fah Kui was created with one of its objectives being to: ensure sustainable development and conserve the environment for future generations. The ministry also set-up the Special Committee on Renewable Energy (SCORE) which is committed to promoting all types of renewable sources of energy including palm oil biomass, biogas, municipal waste, solar mini-hydro and wind.
Some eight months later, on December 17th 2009, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said the Malaysian government was committed to reducing CO2 emission by 40 per cent by 2020.
So how is this possible?...
Trepidation as Sabah dirty coal-fired power plant D-day looms - Free Malaysia Today
controversial plant, has finally succumbed to pressure from federal authorities responsible for the country's energy demands.
KOTA KINABALU: Amidst the scorching Sabah heat, dry rivers and raging wildfires, advocates of a greener, cleaner state face up to the burning likelihood that the government's final solution to the state's perennial electricity shortage could be the kiss of death to their efforts to preserve the environment.
The environment impact assessment (EIA) report of the proposed 300MW coal-fired power plant at Felda Tungku in Lahad Datu, is due to be out this month.
The state government, after initially dithering on approving thebah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman rejected the coal power plant in 2008, but rapidly back-pedalled when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the controversial plant would be sited at Felda Tungku.
Electricity supply in the state comes directly under the federal government through power supplier Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), which in turn is controlled by the country's main power supplier, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).
SESB and TNB have long maintained that coal is the only option as a source of power supply on the east coast.
"Coal is the most economically viable fuel option for the east coast of Sabah, against other alternatives. Abundance supply of coal from nearby Kalimantan… will provide secured supply of coal at competitive price, thus ensuring continuous operation of the plant and optimum cost of supply/tariff," SESB said on its website.
