Residents staying around the proposed Kepong waste incinerator are worried that a potential disaster is in the making.

A 1,000 metric tonne waste incinerator, to burn garbage day and night and said to cost RM800 million, is to be placed right between a former landfill that leaks methane gas and a petrol station in Taman Beringin.

And the surroundings are packed with residential areas.

The incinerator project is being undertaken by the National Solid Waste Management Department (JPSPN) which is under the the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Ministry.

The project has been defended by the ministry, which has insisted that the incinerator is the only solution to deal with the mounting wastes in the Klang Valley.

This is despite there being the 1,700-acre landfill in  Bukit Tagar, which its operator Berjaya-KUB Environment, says can take all the wastes in the Klang Valley for another 70 years or more.

Residents group Kepong Tak Nak Incinerator (KTI) said although the incinerator is to be built in Kepong, the areas affected by the polluting gases released will spread far and wide, and into the neighbouring Selayang and Batu areas as well.

Lee Chiun Min of KTI said that the residents have for two decades now put up with the unbearable stench from the waste transfer station.

“Does it justify that you take away the stench, only to replace it with a 1,000-tonne incinerator that will spew dioxin, and on top of that, be between a petrol station and landfill that leaks methane?

“After the burning, if the ashes are not disposed of properly, it will definitely pollute these areas, too.

"Should an explosion occur, this will definitely claim lives, as the would be right beside tens of acres of land leaking methane gas. Not only the gas is leaking, there is also leaching from the waste transfer plant, which has killed the river nearby," Lee said.

'Over my dead body', says KTI chief

KTI said it was very worried after having seen how local authorities were maintaining much smaller incinerators such as the one in Pangkor.

Its members have just come back from a visit to the Pangkor waste transfer station, which is less than half the scale of the proposed Kepong incinerator, and they are "appalled" that the authorities cannot even maintain that - and yet want to build such a huge one in Kepong.

KTI chairman Isaiah Jacobs ( left ), who has been staying in the flats overlooking the waste transfer station since it was built, said the incinerator would only be built “over my dead body”.

Said Isiah: "My opposition is not only to the incinerator but to the whole waste transfer station.

"We have land and we can educate our children to follow the 3R method (Reduce, Recycle and Reuse). Look at the cost of the incinerator! Why not invest in proper waste management?

"Is the government really serious on maintaining it? Look at our public track record on maintenance.

“I will make sure that the government will not build the incinerator here. It will be over my dead body. Yes, this is a gazetted waste transfer site, so why allow development here? We are not arrogant, we go nicely if you are not arrogant.

“Once the Direct Environment Impact Assessment (DEIA) report comes out on the incinerator, we will take action. I am not emotional - I have a right to speak out for my environment and I am the people's voice against the incinerator."

The 2012 Auditor-General's Report says a total of RM199.09 million from the RM337.45 million allocated by the federal government was spent on the construction of the new incinerator plants projects under the 9th and 10th Malaysia Plans.

The report criticised the way four incinerator plants were managed and said the incinerators were either not being used or not used to their full potential.

Minister: Site already gazetted for waste

Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan had stated that the incinerator would be safe and that the reason the site was chosen was because it was already gazetted as a waste transfer site.

Rahman ( right ) also accused opposition politicians of politicising the issue with KTI.

For Kepong Member of Parliament Tan Seng Giaw, not much can be done to oppose the government once it has made up its mind.

Tan said as long as the government promises that the priority will be the safety of the people, there would be little ground to oppose.

As resigned and as accepting as Tan is, the KTI residents group said it would not let the incinerator be built.

The residents also pointed out that one of the country's biggest parks, the Metropolitan Park, is also right next door to the site of the proposed incinerator.

However, ministry officers brushed this off and told the people the incinerator would be safe to their health.

The ministry even sponsored trips for selected residents to go to Japan and visit the waste incinerators. This was done quietly with the assistance of the NGO Malaysian Society of Waste Management and Environment (MWSME).

MWSME is headed by Universiti Malaya's P Agamuthu, one of the ministry's consultants for the Kepong incinerator project.

Bernama reported on Monday that Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) has been shortlisted to bid for the 1,000-tonne per day waste-to-energy incinerator project in Taman Beringin, Kepong.

MRCB chief financial officer Ann Wan Tee said the group was expected to submit its bid to the government in November.

MRCB is among four firms bidding for the concession, which beat 29 other competitors in the shortlist, according to a report in the Edge Financial Daily report two days ago.

Quoting an industry source, the news report said the four firms would team up with companies from Japan and South Korea to jointly bid for the concession.

It also said that MRCB would team up with an engineering, procurement and construction company from South Korea, Hyundai Rotem Co, for the project.