LETTER | 20 years of garbage dumping in Ara Damansara

LETTER | Former science, technology, environment and climate change minister Yeo Bee Yin referred to Lynas’ operations as Malaysia’s monument of shame for its environmental dangers. Regrettably, Malaysians live with many shameful reminders of environmental neglect and destruction every day, frequently in conditions that are hazardous.

For 20 years, residents of Ara Damansara have been complaining about garbage being dumped in the vicinity of their neighbourhood on land that is technically under a different local council.

Residents have also been told by their council at a meeting on June 30, 2022, that the land in question is under Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s purview. They were told at the meeting in the Petaling Jaya City Council that an enforcement team will observe and catch the culprits.

This is a hilarious statement given that culprits do not leave timetables for dumping and can appear on weekends or weekdays, early in the morning, in the afternoon, or late in the evening.

Residents have reported the mobile numbers indicated on the sides of these dump trucks, but no one appears to have followed up either. All this raises questions about integrity and concern for the environment and people’s lives.

So, over the last 20 years, repeated complaints have been made to the council, MPs, state assemblypersons, mainstream news media, and others.

Despite this, every week, dump trucks appear with building materials, huge plastic bags of unknown materials, and other inflammable materials that are dumped on the same site, near the confluence of Sungai Kayu Ara and Sungai Damansara.

The parties that dump these materials also frequently bring in excavators to level the dumped materials so more can be dumped in the next round. All these point to the possibility of an ongoing arrangement between parties unknown on terms unknown - but clearly all illegal.

When residents complain, it looks like the news reaches the ears of the culprits as the dumping stops for a while. Or they will conduct open-air burning in the dead of night when no one can see the persons responsible. It looks like this is to get rid of some of the evidence.

This makes it worse for residents in the area due to the choking fumes emitted by burning plastic and rubber, among other materials.

There is also the ongoing problem of this dumped garbage floating out to the two rivers when it rains or when the area gets flooded, as it did during the last round of floods in Selangor.

This is probably adding to the river pollution that Klang Valley residents have been struggling with for some years now.

This is just one suburban example of a 20-year problem that has been neglected because those in authority appear incapable of mobilising reasonable resources in the simple act of stopping dumping and open burning.

Indeed, children in our primary schools are taught early on that they should not throw garbage around or carry out open burning. The real Malaysia makes a mockery of such lessons. How sad that we have a nation where the theory sounds good, but the practice is still impossible.

I urge the authorities responsible to save the health of residents in Ara Damansara and to address this situation immediately.

Below is Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s written reply to Malaysiakini

With regards to the statement that “the land in question is under Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s purview”, we wish to clarify that the illegal dumping site is located over 150m away from the boundary of TNB’s reserve for the high voltage line at the location.

TNB’s Right of Way (ROW) or reserve in the area is limited to 40m to the left and right of the power line. A recent site inspection revealed that no garbage has been dumped in TNB’s ROW.

Azmi Md Yusof
Head Grid Maintenance
Grid Division, TNB

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