Residents in Yishun & Punggol complain of urine-like smell, likely from Johor

The air has been smelling a little more than funky.
Guan Zhen Tan Mothership 20 Mar 19;

Mmm, pee pee

Yishunites and Punggolians have been sniffing out something awful in the air lately.

Residents from both estates have been complaining that the smell is similar to that of urine.

According to Shin Min Daily News on March 15, some residents in Punggol have reportedly experienced giddiness and nausea after being exposed to “The Smell”.

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Malaysia: Guideline review for factories handling hazardous chemicals

MOHD FAHMI MOHD YUSOF New Straits Times 20 Jan 19;

JOHOR BARU: The government will review existing guidelines of licence applications from factories which handle hazardous chemical substances.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the ministry will bring the matter before the Cabinet for a decision.

She said such a review was necessary to prevent the recurrence of Sungai Kim Kim toxic waste pollution.

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Malaysia: Satellite data shows Pasir Gudang has 46 possible illegal dumping grounds

mohd farhaan shah The Star 20 Mar 19;

ISKANDAR PUTERI: Satellite data shows that Pasir Gudang has about 46 potential illegal dumping locations, says Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin.

She said this was one of the findings by the scientific committee formed to look into the chemical dumping incident at Sungai Kim Kim on March 7.

"The committee used satellite data to look at the whole Pasir Gudang area to identify possible illegal dumping locations.

"We hope that the state government and local authorities will take action by cleaning the identified locations," she said, adding that the ministry would provide the list to them soon.

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Malaysia: Bushfires on the rise in Sabah

Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 20 Mar 19;

KOTA KINABALU: The state Fire and Rescue Department is receiving an average of 80 calls per day about bushfires in the past two weeks.

Director Kamarulzaman Malik Abdullah said Tuaran and Keningau had the most reports.

“Open burning activities are contributing to the haze. Although (the haze) subsided somewhat yesterday because of rain, the department has now received more calls involving bushfires in several areas.

“The fires are not spontaneous. They are man-made,” he told the New Straits Times today.

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Indonesia: Terra and Aqua Satellites detect 165 hotspots in Riau, Sumatra

FB Anggoro, Fardah Antara 20 Mar 19;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA) - The Terra and Aqua Satellites, on Wednesday morning, detected a total of 187 hotspots on Sumatra Island, including 165 in Riau Province, according to the Pekanbaru meteorology station.

The number of hotspots in Riau increased to 165, from 156 on the previous day, according to a statement issued by the local meteorology station.

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Mar 19

Celebrating Singapore Shores Forever!
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

High time to re-evaluate nature’s worth in Singapore?
Love our MacRitchie Forest

30 Mar (Sat): All Talk, How Action? - A workshop on Civil Society action
wild shores of singapore

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NParks opens nature playground at HortPark as testbed for future ‘biophilic’ sites

SHERLYN SEAH Today Online 20 Mar 19;

SINGAPORE — At first glance, it might not look like much, with leaves, sand and some wooden blocks and poles in the ground. However, the new biophilic playground at HortPark has been specially designed to allow children to play freely with nature.

Centred upon the concept of “biophilia”, the innate emotional connection that humans have with nature, research has shown that interacting with the outdoors helps children develop creativity.

The new play area will also be a testing ground for the National Parks Board (NParks) to develop design guidelines, by early 2020, to help pre-schools, government agencies and developers in building more of such sites around the island.

This is so that more playgrounds can adopt natural designs for children to experience biodiversity.

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Singapore continues to monitor situation in Pasir Gudang as more illegal dumping found

Channel NewsAsia 20 Mar 19;

SINGAPORE: Authorities in Singapore are monitoring the situation in Pasir Gudang, as more illegal waste dumping sites have been found in the area.

One of the new dumping sites found this week is along Johor's Sungai Masai, which empties into the Johor Strait opposite Singapore's northern coast, near Yishun.

The air and water quality in Singapore, as well as the water supply, remain unaffected by the latest developments, said the National Environment Agency (NEA), Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, Singapore's water agency PUB and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) in a joint statement on Tuesday (Mar 19).

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam described the illegal chemical waste dumping as "an irresponsible act".

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Malaysia: Air quality dips in several areas in Pahang and Melaka

Bernama New Straits Times 19 Mar 19;

KUALA LUMPUR: Four areas in Pahang and Melaka recorded unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings as at 12 noon today.

Based on the latest readings from the website of the Department of Environment (DoE), Rompin and Balok Baru Kuantan in Pahang recorded the highest API readings of 192 and 157 respectively.

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Malaysia: Govt working on stiffer punishment following Pasir Gudang toxic fumes incident

Syed Umar Ariff New Straits Times 19 Mar 19;

KUALA LUMPUR: Stiffer punishment may be introduced as part of amendments to the Environmental Quality Act 1974, following the toxic fumes incident in Pasir Gudang.

Deputy Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis told the Dewan Rakyat today that measures were also in the pipeline to significantly reduce pollution.

"We are proposing to change (amend) the Act, and continuously strengthen overall enforcement to ensure pollution can be significantly reduced effectively," she said.

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Malaysia: Sg Kim Kim free of toxic pollution

Reports by NELSON BENJAMIN, MOHD FARHAAN SHAH, REMAR NORDIN and AUSTIN CAMOENS The Star 20 Mar 19;

PASIR GUDANG: The 1.5km stretch of Sungai Kim Kim – which was put under the national spotlight after it became polluted with chemical waste – is declared free of toxic pollution.

This declaration was made after carrying out an extensive cleaning operation, said Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin.

The authorities will still continue to monitor the river for the next 25 days to ensure the water and air quality within the surrounding is clean.

“Now, the job is to bring all the chemical waste collected to a factory for disposal. A total of 900 metric tonnes of soil and 1,500 metric tonnes of water that was polluted has been cleaned,” she said at a press conference held at the main dumping ground near Sungai Kim Kim here yesterday.

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Malaysia: Only the tip of the iceberg

lo tern chern The Star 20 Mar 19;

EXCLUSIVE:BUKIT MERTAJAM: From the north to the south of Peninsular Malaysia, there seems to be no end yet to the discovery of illegal dumpsites.

Although Penang was the first state to implement the “No Single-Use Plastic” initiative, it has a lot more environmental battles to take on, with illegal disposal of waste becoming a hot issue as of late.

Just three days after the report of chemical waste dumped in an oil palm estate in Bukit Teh here, an illegal plastic dumpsite the size of six football fields has been uncovered in nearby Machang Bubok.

During a visit to the site yesterday, The Star saw mounds of shredded plastic almost two storeys high. Excavators and forklifts were at work unloading more of such waste from trucks.

It is believed that the marshland was previously an illegal sand quarry that had been shut down many years ago.

Besides plastic waste, items such as discarded furniture and construction debris have filled up the pools of water there.

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