Residents in Broga, earmarked for an incinerator and landfill facility, want Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo to live up to his promise and scrap the controversial project, which is sited within a crucial water catchment area.

Alice Lee of the pro-tem Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator Action Committee told malaysiakini today that Mohd Khir should realise that the maps in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports clearly show that the project was in a water catchment area.

The maps, released in August and December respectively, indicate that the project lies within the Sungai Langat water catchment area. Specifically, the projects are to be located near a tributary of Sungai Langat, Sungai Saringgit, which together with other sources, meet the fresh water needs of some 1.5 million Klang Valley residents.

Earlier this month, Mohd Khir told Malay daily Utusan Malaysia that the state government had never approved the project to be constructed within a water catchment area.

He also claimed that the government is still waiting for the complete EIA reports on the project.

But Lee claimed otherwise. She said the Selangor government should be well-aware of the EIA reports and should in fact have already reviewed them before their release to the public by the Department of Environment (DOE).

"Since he (Mohd Khir) is not aware of the true facts of the project, we wish to point out to him the EIA reports. We also wish to invite him to Broga to look at the site. The committee is more than willing to help him understand the true situation," said Lee.

Long wait

On Saturday, a delegation of some 40 residents from the Broga area attempted to meet Mohd Khir at the state government building in Shah Alam but were told that he was only willing to meet with three individuals.

State exco member Tang See Hang, who met with the entire group in the end, informed them that a state exco meeting would be convened to review the EIA reports,

However, he insisted that the states government has yet to receive any formal EIA reports on the project from the DOE.

Broga residents have now been waiting for almost a year and a half for the state government to make its decision on the project.

"The residents are very concerned. We want the government to scrap the whole project and not delay this any longer," said Lee.

She said the state government could not continue to insist that environmental and health concerns raised by the project have been have been taken into consideration, when in fact there is a strong possibility of this contaminating piped water supply.