Housing and Local Government Ministry officials, believed never to have set foot on the site of Malaysia's first multi-billion ringgit incinerator project, are now expected to visit the site in Broga within the next two weeks, a senior officer told residents recently.

Last Saturday, a group of 44 Broga residents met with Local Government Department Director-General Mohamad Saib to protest the conditional approval of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the RM1.5 billion project.

About 25 members of the ministry's high-level technical committee and government-appointed environmental consultant were present at the ministry in Kuala Lumpur.

Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator pro tem action committee member Zulkefly Mohamad Omar said Mohd Saib promised to visit the area after noting their objections and arguments.

"He said he will visit Broga within the next week or two to meet the residents and see the place for himself," he said when contacted today.

But last week's dialogue turned out to be a disappointment for the residents.

"It was lopsided. We had to repeat the grounds for our protest despite having submitted numerous copies of memorandums to all top government officials and political leaders," he said.

Ministry officials could not be reached for comments.

The controversy-ridden project, coverage of which has been blacked-out by the mainstream media, has been persistently opposed by local residents in and around Broga as well as international anti-incinerator activists.

Legal action too

The government has also refused to comment on the trouble it is allegedly facing with Ebara Corporation, the Tokyo-based contractor hired to design, build and commission the 1,500-tonne plant by 2007.

On the dialogue, Zulkefly said the government appeared to be gauging the seriousness of grassroots protests.

"We're prepared to fight all the way to stop the project, including through legal action. We made this very clear to them."

He said the DG kept mum when asked about the tender process which lacked transparency.

"To questions about awarding the contract in secrecy way before the EIA was approved, all remained silent.

"Citing the reports in malaysiakini, we asked the DG to explain how a major contract could bypass proper open tender procedures," Zulkefly said. "He just smiled and said nothing."

Questions not answered

Another vocal resident Alice Lee said the technical committee members and EIA consultant had remained silent throughout the meeting.

"No one answered our questions on the location of the plant, risks to public health and the possibility of serious water contamination," she said when contacted.

Residents' questions on the siting of the project within a water catchment area which formed part of a crucial water supply network for the Klang Valley also went unanswered.

Lee said there was no logic in calling residents for a dialogue with the high-level technical committee and EIA consultant after the green light has been given.

"When asked if the project will proceed, the DG said it will because the EIA has been approved. We still insist that the government should stop the project."

She said questions on the 'secret' tender process also went unanswered.

"All of them just kept quiet without saying a word. We were doing all the talking. The more senior residents told the DG to bring Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting along for the Broga visit," said Lee.

"Since they (villagers) could not speak in Bahasa, they wanted to personally tell Ong in Chinese what they thought about the project."

Unheeded pleas

Residents' pleas to meet Ong, who is also MCA president, for a dialogue since 2002 has fallen on deaf ears.

Ong, who has consistently ignored their pleas, passed the residents' faxed requests to be handled by ministry officials despite promises to meet them once the EIA report was completed.

His promise to probe into the project contractor's allegedly dodgy track record back in Japan has yielded no results.

Broga residents are also protesting a proposed sanitary landfill adjacent to the incinerator site, citing similar grounds of being gazetted as an environmentally-sensitive area and a water catchment area.

Repeated pleas to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and then deputy premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had also gone unheard.