Press Releases No real improvement in environment quality - says SAM 23rd December 1999 Sahabat Alam Malaysia views with concern the findings contained in the Environmental Quality Report 1998 as reported in the press today. The Report deals with a very small range of issues in relation to the state of the Malaysian environment. It only covers air and water quality and industrial wastes as these are issues which come within the very limited scope of competence of the Department of Environment. What is not reflected in relation to the environmental health of the country are issues of major concern that concern the state of our natural resources viz: the destruction of our forests, wetlands, including mangroves and their current status depletion of our fish resources hill land destruction destruction of our water catchments and its impact on water resources the related problems of floods and drought soil erosion and quality of our soil resources erosion of coastlines and the problem of subsidence of land and so on In 1998 Malaysia experienced a very serious water crisis. SAM calls upon the Federal Government to compile such a report with the collaboration of the various State Governments to reflect the true state of our environment. The DOE report shows some marginal improvement in relation to the state of our river, water and air quality. However, these conclusions were arrived at by the DOE, using 1997 as the year of comparison with the findings in 1998. As it is well known, the state of our air quality in 1997 was the worst as compared to previous years as it was the year when we experienced the haze episode. Hence, if one compares the 1998 findings with 1997, there will definitely be an overall improvement. The DOE ought to have compared the 1998 monitoring results with the results of the past 5 yeas at least, to provide a more accurate picture. Further, the Report clearly shows a worsening of the quality of the environment in relation to marine water and ground water. As for motor vehicle emissions, the number of vehicles inspected in 1997 as compared to 1998 appears to have significantly dropped from about 78,000 inspection in 1997 to only 28,000 inspections in 1998. This reflects on the enforcement capability of the relevant authorities concerned. Absent from the Report is the state of noise pollution in the country and the incidence of acid rain. These issues have been a source of major concern over the years given the rapid pace of urbanisation and industrialisation. The Report is also silent on the status of the review done by DOE in 1992 on all environment related legislation in the country. The review was a very critical exercise to improve the functioning and effectiveness of the DOE as well as in improving environmental laws in the country to ensure a better environment for all. SAM believes that much needs to be done in improving the state of the Malaysian environment. It is indeed regrettable that despite the rhetoric about the concern for the Malaysian environment, both the Federal and State Governments have not done very much in improving the quality of our environment and natural resources. S.M. Mohd Idris President Sahabat Alam Malaysia