3,000 More Officers Needed To Strengthen DOE’s Monitoring Efforts - DG

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- The Department of Environment (DOE) needs about 3,000 additional officers to strengthen monitoring and enforcement efforts nationwide, said its director-general, Datuk Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar.

He said the proposal for additional staff has been submitted to the government, including the Public Service Department (JPA), as part of a plan to strengthen the organisation and improve pollution control and enforcement of environmental laws.

“This proposal has been included in the department’s improvement plan and is now being refined before being resubmitted to the government. We hope it will be approved so that our monitoring and enforcement work can be further improved,” he told the media here today.

Wan Abdul Latiff said the DOE currently has 1,111 technical and enforcement officers responsible for monitoring more than 64,000 fixed pollution sources nationwide, including factories, sewage treatment plants, and development projects that require Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports.

He said this number does not include other sources of pollution such as over 33 million motor vehicles and 3,000 petrol stations, which are also under DOE monitoring, in addition to more than 10,000 pollution complaints received each year.

With the current number of personnel, he said, the DOE can only carry out about 20,000 inspections annually compared to the actual need for 64,000 premises, making it necessary to focus on high-risk locations.

“Priority is given to factories that have faced previous action, have complaint records, are located near water sources, produce toxic and hazardous waste, or have high pollution levels,” he said.

He added that each DOE enforcement team currently conducts about 16 inspections a month, based on existing work norms.

“From this calculation, we found that around 3,000 more officers are needed to ensure full and effective monitoring nationwide,” he said.

At the same time, he said the DOE has intensified enforcement against illegal processing of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) through joint operations with the police (PDRM) and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.

He said that this year alone, two major operations under Ops Hazard were carried out in February and July, focusing on illegal premises processing imported e-waste using false declarations to avoid restrictions.

“When such items are confirmed as e-waste, we issue a notice for them to be returned to the country of origin in line with Malaysia’s obligations under the Basel Convention, which controls the cross-border movement of hazardous waste.

“Most of this illegal e-waste comes from developed countries such as the United States and Europe, and we work closely with the authorities in those countries to return the waste,” he said.

He said that through the two Ops Hazard operations, action was taken against 47 illegal premises, and various e-waste materials were seized for forfeiture and auction to licenced operators.

He added that another operation, called Ops Dermaga, was carried out in September with PDRM to curb e-waste smuggling at the country’s main entry points.

“This e-waste enters the country illegally, is processed in unlicenced factories, and often involves undocumented workers. We are strengthening cooperation with other agencies to stop this activity completely,” he added.

-- BERNAMA