Reacting to the recent discovery of an illegal stockpile of toxic waste shipped from Taiwan to Malaysia, an environmental group today urged Asean members to make visible, regional efforts to stop their countries from becoming a toxic and hazardous waste dumping ground.

On Monday, Taiwan announced that it would be prepared to take back the toxic waste after it was discovered that a Taipei-based company had used a fake Malaysian import licence. Malaysia said it was ready to return the shipment to Taiwan.

Greenpeace, from its regional base in Bangkok, said Southeast Asia has been observed in the last few years as a favourite destination for waste trade, and a regional regulatory framework is now necessary to stem the inflow.

The case of the illegal import of toxic sludge from Taiwan, found stored at a brick-making factory in Johor, could just be the "proverbial tip of the iceberg", said the organisation.

"If this can happen to Malaysia, which is a party to the Basel Convention and has ratified the Basel Ban Amendment, what more for other countries in the region?" said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Toxics Campaigner Francis de la Cruz.

He said that Southeast Asia "appears to be a particularly susceptible target to international waste traders due to the absence of a regional regulatory framework, coupled with weak national regulatory regimes to address toxic waste."

At present, Malaysia and Brunei are the only two Southeast Asian countries that have ratified the Basel Ban Amendment, which expects to place a global prohibition on the dumping of hazardous waste by European Union and the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development to other countries.

Ratify agreement now

The environmental group urged the rest of Asean to ratify the agreement, currently 18 countries short of the 62 parties needed to turn the agreement into international law.

"By throwing Asean support to the Basel Ban Amendment, all ambiguity of the illegality of these shipments would be erased, and the onus will fall on exporting nations to prosecute the illegal shipments... it is time for Asean to get its act together on the environmental front," it added.

On Wednesday, Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister S Sothinathan was grilled in parliament after he revealed that his ministry had been aware of illegal activities at the factory since late last year.

The deputy minister informed the House that he needed more time to gather 'evidence and information', prompting one backbencher to say that 'the 12,000 tonnes of toxic waste stored in the factory was evidence enough'.

Opposition MP Fong Po Kuan said the ministry's probe shouldn't be restricted to the company involved but should be extended to ministerial weaknesses which allowed the incident to occur.