It's out of the bag. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the controversial RM1.5 billion incinerator project proposed in Broga has been approved, albeit with certain conditions.

The shocker came this morning when DOE Director-General Rosnani Ibarahim ( photo ) announced the decision, dated May 28, at a dialogue organised by the department with some 20-odd Broga residents in Putrajaya.

She told the affected residents that the conditions for the approval could be obtained from the Housing and Local Government Ministry - the project's proponent.

Also present at the three-hour dialogue were DOE technical director Aziz Rasol and several officials.

The residents, led by the Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator pro tem action committee, have firmly opposed the doubt-ridden project on grounds that it poses huge health, financial and environmental risks .

The EIA report had also come under close scrutiny by the committee, including the unexpected delay in reaching a decision on the detailed report.

Water catchment area

"I'm totally shocked and extremely disappointed with the DOE's decision," said dejected resident Nor Shariha Abdul Aziz, with tears welling in her eyes.

"We had hoped that the DOE would understand the facts and figures as presented in the numerous memorandums, but this is terrible.

"In fact, Rosnani even confirm that the proposed site was within a water catchment area."

Speaking to reporters waiting at the lobby, Nor Shariha, an action committee member, said the situation at the meeting turned tense after the announcement, with residents expressing their utter disappointment with the DOE.

Another committee member, Zulkefly Mohamad Omar, said the next step is to get the conditions of approval from the project's proponent and to study them.

"We hope to meet the secretary-general of the housing ministry next week and appeal to him based on our grounds for objection.

"If that fails, we have no choice but to appeal to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's good sense to scrap this very risky project."

He said that Rosnani only said that the water intake at Sungai Semenyih was far away from the proposed site and therefore, should be at any risk.

"But our main concern is the fact that it is to be sited within a water catchment area which has been gazetted as environmentally-sensitive. This was obviously because of the sensitive nature of the area.

"We are very shocked that a government agency is violating the country's law by approving the EIA report for this project, even though it is a conditional one."

Posers unanswered

Zulkefly said the DOE failed to answer questions regarding the disposal of ash from the incinerator plant. Fly-ash and bottom-ash are both internationally categorised as toxic ash which must be treated the same way as nuclear waste.

"Where is this ash going to be buried now? In the landfill nearby, of which the EIA study is currently under technical evaluation by the DOE?"

"If the incinerator is not dangerous as the government claims, why not build it right here in Putrajaya, which is not a water catchment area, or in a city centre?" Zulkefly asked.

Alice Lee, another committee member, was very upset by the lack of concern shown by the DOE towards the plight of the residents, especially their livelihood through fruit and vegetable farming.

She said residents were told that emissions from the plant will only affect an area within a 1.5km radius.

"What about villagers with durian orchards and fruit farms within a 1km radius? Who will want to buy fruits once they know the source?

"The DOE also could not answer most of our questions. How can they approve the EIA when there are still many loopholes?" she said, adding that they had to wait one hour before Rosnani came in.

"If we hadn't insisted on her presence, she wouldn't have been there at all. How can she send her officers to meet us over a matter as important as this?"

Lee recalled Rosnani as saying in a previous meeting that she (Rosnani) would be the first to reject the proposal if the proposed site was in a water catchment area.

Prove actual cancer cases

"What can she say about it now? It is clear that the plant sits in an area that has been gazetted by the Selangor government as an environmentally-sensitive area, which includes forest reserves and the water catchment basin," she said.

She said Rosnani remained silent when reminded of it.

"Instead, she asked residents who are mostly simple villagers to prove actual cancer cases caused by incinerators before the government would consider scrapping the proposal.

"We told her that was impossible because it was the government's responsibility to ensure the safety of the rakyat. The rakyat should never be asked to prove something which is totally beyond their means," added Lee.

She said Rosnani was also asked about the huge health risk imposed on the villagers.

"She told us that the government will help them if they start falling sick. We are supposed to ask the state government about this, but the state will send us straight back to the federal government by saying that the DOE had approved the project, so there was nothing wrong with the plant.

"This is the kind of run-around that we've been putting up with all these years. What we want is simple, really. We only want to prevent a catastrophe because it will be too late later."

Just before the dialogue ended, reporters, photographers and TV cameramen went upstairs to pursue the DOE for comments and waited outside the meeting room 'accompanied' by a couple of Special Branch officers.

But security guards who caught up with the group began accusing them of trespassing and threatened to call the police to throw them out.

'Get appointment first'

When a few journalists tried to explain why they wanted to wait there instead of down at the lobby, and the urgency of getting DOE's confirmation on the approval, the guards insisted that they leave the premises together with the residents who were just coming out of the meeting room.

In the midst of the commotion, the key DOE officials left the scene unnoticed.

As the arguments continued with raised voices, two uniformed policemen emerged onto the scene. One bore a machine-gun on his shoulder. Both were seen observing the arguments between journalists, DOE officials and the security guards.

A DOE official, who was at the dialogue earlier, but who refused to identify herself, promised to get top DOE officials to comment but instead later told reporters to leave the building.

"Both of them (Rosnani and Aziz) are out for lunch. Furthermore, you don't have an appointment. So, I'm sorry but you cannot see anyone right now," she said.

"You can't see anyone unless you have an appointment."

Despite reiterating the urgency of getting an immediate response from the DOE, the same official advised the reporters to 'send a letter to (Aziz's) secretary for an appointment first'.

The uniformed policemen later escorted the group of journalists to the lobby downstairs, where the residents were waiting to give a press conference.

The background of Japanese engineering giant, Ebara Corporation, the contractor Malaysia has hired to build the 1,500-tonne Broga plant, has been criticised by the Japanese media over its tainted track record in operating incinerators.

The proposed plant is believed to be the largest of its kind in the world to use Japan's zero emission technology, but critics have unearthed shady deals and raised doubts over the track record of Ebara Corp, the company contracted to do the job.

Japan is home to an estimated 4,000 industrial and solid municipal waste incinerators and currently holds the dubious record for the country with the highest concentration of dioxin in the world.