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The Star
By Tan Cheng Li Foot-dragging of the Solid Waste Management Bill has dire repercussions. Without it, the proposed privatisation cannot proceed. The waste concessionaires now sign yearly contracts with individual local authorities to collect and dispose of rubbish.
The interim nature of the deals, some of which have stretched into the tenth year, prevents the companies from expanding investments and obtaining bank financing. They are paid poorly for their services and in some instances, go unpaid.
The concessionaires say sorting out our dumpsite woes will require closure of existing old dumps and replacing them with a few large engineered landfills and backing that up with a network of waste transfer stations. At the transfer stations, recyclables will be recovered and the waste, compacted for easier transportation to the landfill.
These ideas are contained in their masterplans. Southern Waste Management (SWM), for instance, plans to build three engineered landfills in Johor and one each in Malacca and Negri Sembilan over the next 20 years.
“But it is subject to finalisation of the privatisation plan,” says group general manager D.L. Ho.
Alam Flora chief executive officer Mohamed Siraj Abdul Razack shares this view. “Privatisation must be speeded up. This will allow us to implement our masterplan.”
Alam Flora’s strategy for the Klang Valley includes two landfills, an incinerator and nine waste transfer stations. For Pahang, it is planning landfills in Kuantan, Temerloh and Bentong, and an incinerator in Cameron Highlands.
The group had 62 landfills under its concessionaire areas in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Pahang in 1996 but now operates only 18. It did not take over the Kajang, Klang, Hulu Selangor, Ampang and Cameron Highland landfills as well as those in Kelantan and Terengganu.
Many are fearful of the privatisation plan but there seems no way out since local governments have so far, made a mess of waste-handling. A 2004 study funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency found some of the foulest dumps to be those run by councils.
Many councils are reluctant to surrender control over waste management to the concessionaires because of vested interest. Environment Idaman, tasked by the Housing and Local Government Ministry to handle solid waste in Penang, Perak, Perlis and Kedah, has not been able to take over the job from councils. (The first concessionaire for the northern region, Northern Waste Management, has backed out from the privatisation plan.)
Sanitary landfills incur hefty investments which local governments can ill-afford. Take for instance, SWM’s Seelong landfill in Johor Baru which handles 1,200 tonnes of trash daily. It was completed in 2004 at a cost of RM40mil and the addition of another landfill cell cost a further RM10mil. Ho says it is the only solid waste landfill in the country which meets Standard B requirements as it has a physical, biological and chemical leachate treatment system.
Both Ho and Siraj maintain solid waste management should not be done in a piece-meal manner. They insist that the people who build the landfill must also be in charge of related services and facilities such as waste collection and transfer stations.
“This will ensure an integrated approach. If a different company operates the landfill, it has no reason to reduce waste volumes. The more waste it receives, the more it makes from tipping fees,” says Siraj.
But the pressure from business interests is strong; the trash industry is slowly being sliced up, much like what has happened to the business of potable water supply. For instance, the proposed waste transfer station in Kampung Bohol in Selangor is by the company Cywaste and not Alam Flora. The Selangor state government, through its stake in Worldwide Landfills, is scouting for sites for a transfer station and a new landfill.
The Malacca state government, meanwhile, has agreed to an incinerator to be built by Octogon Consolidated.
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Waste & Climate Conference, Copenhagen (7-18 December 2009)
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