Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) calls for the department of environment (DOE) to reject the approval of the environmental impact assessment for the development of 15 luxurious chalets at Pulau Payar Marine Park, Kedah.

SAM is shocked that the DOE gave the EIA approval on Sept 27 2003. It was only made known to SAM yesterday by department.

SAM has been writing to the DOE in Kedah since July this year, and in spite of several

reminders, the department had failed to answer a series of questions posted to them on the approval of the EIA.

The issues was highlighted earlier after a controversial statement by Kedah Menteri Besar Kedah Syed Razak Syed Zain was made in Aug 2002 that the development of the project does not require any EIA.

The approval for the EIA was sought in May 2003, after it was made known to the public that 20 per cent of the project had been completed. This is a clear violation of the Environment Quality Act 1987. The Kedah DOE director had refuted that the DOE had given a green light for the project ( New Straits Times , May 29, 2003).

The project was initiated under the Kedah Maju 2010 plan and is being undertaken by the State Development Corporation on an island declared as a marine park since 1994, and without an EIA approval.

The DOE therefore has not taken any action against the developer even though the laws permits a fine up to RM100,000 and five years jail or both to be imposed for violation of the Act.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in Aug this year had issued a statement that all development on highlands and islands should obtain federal approval before any development is allowed.Datuk Law Heng Deng was quoted saying the regulation was made into place "to take into account the environment sensitivities of highland and islands". ( The Star , Aug 10, 2003).

SAM therefore argued that a detailed EIA (DEIA) should be prepared for any development in Pulau Payar Marine Park and be made available to the public for comments. SAM also argued the economic viability of the project as no financial analysis on the demand against the cost of construction and maintenance of such a high cost project had been done.

Pulau Payar Marine Park which covers the marine waters two nautical miles off a group of uninhabited islands of Pulau Payar, Pulau Kaca, Pulau Lembu and Pulau Segantang is a beautiful natural island which poses the only wondrous clear water coral reef on the west coast of Peninsular. 35 hard coral genera, 92 other marine invertebrates and 45 genera of fish have been recorded around the Marine Park.

Pulau Payar Marine Park has been continuously victimized environmentally with excessive number of tourist coming to the island each year. The threat of trawler activities near the island, unmanaged solid waste and sewage problems, the existing tourism effect and also reports of illegal trespassing by fisherman from Thailand coming to the marine park are amongst some of the various problems faced by the island.

The development of the luxurious chalet will only bring about more chaos to the surrounding environment and destroy any environmental heritage that cannot be replaced.

SAM therefore urges the DOE to take action against the developers that had started the project without the EIA, reject the approval of the newly approved EIA and ask that a Detail EIA (DEIA) be carried out with proper comments and participation from the general public.

SAM urges the government to be more sensitive and transparent over the development of highly sensitive areas such as highlands and islands before any further destruction will happen towards human and environment in the near future.

For further information SAM can be contacted at 9, Solok Emas, 11600 Penang; tel. 04-6596930, fax 04-6596931.