Enforcement and prosecution mechanisms in the management of the environment and Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) will be made more stringent when the Environment Quality Act (Amendment) 2012 comes into force, beginning Jan 2.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Unggah Embas said the amendment, gazetted on Aug 16, provided a more relevant law to tackle environment issues.

He said the amendment also empowered the environmental quality director-general to halt any project contravening EIA, which prior to this, was the minister's prerogative.

"The main element in the amended act is that consultants wanting to carry out an EIA study must be registered with the Department of Environment.

"With this requirement, we hope the time taken to process the study will be faster and it will facilitate quality reports," he said after launching the 2012 National level Malaysian Environment Week here today.

The amendment of the act would further strengthen enforcement against pollution in the country, with the penalty for Section 2 of the act raised to RM500,000 from RM100,000, added the minister.

- Bernama