KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Environment and Water Minister Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man admitted today that there are loopholes in the law which allow property developers to bypass submitting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The minister said that as a result, he had suggested that the ministry closely monitor developers.

“From what was raised, a developer may divide a bigger piece of land, let’s say from 50 hectares, which requires an EIA, into smaller parcels.

“This is one of the loopholes in the law and what we can do is monitor all projects. For example, we recently suspended the operation licence of a quarry in Perak, as we had received reports that it was causing pollution although it did not need an EIA.

“We confirmed that the quarry broke the law and we suspended its operation licence for five to six weeks until it had addressed the pollution and only then did we allow it to resume operations,” Tuan Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat during his winding-up session.

Tuan Ibrahim was responding to DAP’s Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong who asked how the government plans to deal with developers that are using this method as a loophole to avoid conducting an EIA prior to getting approval for development projects.

The minister was also responding to PAS’ Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari who asked about the function of an EIA in containing environmental impacts mainly to prevent floods stemming from various development projects.

“Not all (development) projects are subject to an EIA.

“The need of an EIA is based on four components: land area, slope measurement, environment sensitivity and areas which have been gazetted under the Malaysia Plan.

“These four components are tied to the EIA, and outside of these four components, they need not request an EIA,” he said.

Explaining further, Tuan Ibrahim said the EIA report is a study to identify, predict, evaluate and provide information on the environmental impacts of a project proposal and identify mitigation measures that need to be taken before a project is approved and implemented.
 
He added that it is a mechanism to monitor the impact of the implementation of a project on the environment in areas that are environmentally sensitive or non-environmentally sensitive.

Seeking clarification, Independent MP Xavier Jayakumar, who previously held the same portfolio as a water, land and natural resources minister, asked if current laws need to be amended in order to prevent developers from using these loopholes to avoid submitting an EIA report.

Tuan Ibrahim, however, declined to reply and instead said that such a discussion should be kept for another time.

“I am replying to questions which were raised (in the Dewan Rakyat), not whether or not an Act should be amended.

“That can be discussed another time since this is a time given for ministers to respond to what was raised by MPs,” he said.