Sungai Kim Kim incident opens public's eyes to importance of environmental cleanliness

By Nor Baizura Basri

JOHOR BAHRU, March 20 (Bernama) -- It’s been two weeks since the toxic chemical contamination incident at Sungai Kim Kim, and the sheer severity of its effects has certainly opened the eyes of the public to the importance of taking care of the environment and enforcement against illegal dumping activities.

For the first time in the country’s history, an irresponsible act has not only harmed the environment, but also jeopardized the well-being of people, affecting the health and income of Pasir Gudang community.

Even education was not spared, as a total of 111 schools had to be shut down after students suffered a spate of nausea, vomitting, breathlessness, and dizziness - a condition dubbed as the ‘Kim Kim Symptom’ - believed to be due to inhaling the toxic fumes.

The incident opened the eyes of all parties, especially with regard to the pollution at the river, which had been taking place for almost a decade, without retribution.

Prior to this unfortunate event, Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin had expressed concern over the dismal state of 25 rivers in Malaysia which were categorised as severely polluted, 16 of them being in Johor.

Sungai Kim Kim is one of the 16 rivers which were considered "dead".

Hence, the issue of pollution at Sungai Kim Kim and other rivers in Johor is something that the authorities are well aware of and need to address seriously.

Meanwhile, the government’s swift action to clean the affected 1.5-kilometre stretch of the river within five days is commendable.

Yesterday, Yeo announced that the river was clean and safe, while the air and water quality would be continuously monitored for the next 15 days to restore public confidence.

Today, the Medic Base Treatment Centre at Stadium Stadium Pasir Gudang Stadium and the District Disaster Relief Management Committee’s Operations Centre were officially closed, marking the end of the dark episode.

Full praise should be given to the front-liners, namely the medical teams for tending to patients, security agencies such as the police, firefighters and soldiers, as well as agencies under MESTECC.

Not to forget the media practitioners, who have worked round the clock to provide the latest updates regarding the situation since March 7.

However, the efforts of the Federal and state governments should not stop here, and this episode should further drive the agenda to clean and restore all the rivers that have been polluted.

Enforcement also needs to buck up, with a review of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 essential to ensure more severe penalties for environmental offenders.

Pasir Gudang, for example, has 252 chemical processing plants and careful monitoring of operations especially scheduled waste disposal needs to be tightened.

More importantly, the public's awareness of the impact of environmental pollution on the community has now been ‘awakened’, so people need to continue to play the role of being ‘eyes and ears’ of the authorities to curb rampant pollution.

Let the "Sungai Kim Kim" incident serve as a lesson to all, paving the way for a more environmentally friendly society.

Now, the responsibility of safeguarding the environment lies with the people themselves, and efforts to educate the younger generation must be enhanced so that such tragedy’s do not come back to haunt us.

-- BERNAMA