KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Sixty-six Ops Gempur were conducted from January 1 to August 31, involving 2,398 different types of industrial plants, the Dewan Negara was told today.

Environment and Water Deputy Minister Senator Datuk Ahmad Masrizal Muhammad said following the operations, 2,819 compound notices have been issued for offences under the Environmental Quality Act 1974.

"Apart from becoming a threat to the country’s sustainable development and human survival, environment-related criminal activities are also a threat to national security,” he said during question and answer session here.

He was responding to a question from Senator N. Balasubramaniam on steps taken by the ministry in efforts to prevent pollution, especially river water pollution.

According to Ahmad Masrizal, Ops Gempur is a large-scale operation conducted on randomly selected factories, in collaboration with various agencies.

He said based on DOE records, there were 57,396 factories carrying out various types of manufacturing activities nationwide and of the total, 3,480 produce industrial effluents.

In addition, he said, records also showed that 48 investigation papers have been opened for court action while 39 premises have been convicted and the fines imposed were estimated at over RM1 million.

He added that from January to August this year, total compound fines imposed by the court on errant factories totalled over RM2 million.

He said this in response to a question from Senator Datuk A. Kesavadas who asked whether the government has plans to impose stricter laws on those caught contaminating raw water. — Bernama