EXCLUSIVE Anti-incinerator group Kepong Tak Nak Incinerator (KTI) revealed that despite presenting facts and figures to support its fight, it would seem as if the minister-in-charge will proceed with the project in the middle of their residential area.
 
On Sunday, 13 people including five from KTI, shaved their heads in protest to show how strongly they felt about the issue.
 
“The minister cannot pull the wool over the people’s eyes. We know that by simply upgrading the present waste transfer station, it can overcome the waste problems of Kuala Lumpur. There is no need for a brand new incinerator,” said one KTI member.
 
They said their Jan 29 meeting with the minister showed he had no intention of budging from his stand despite the residents' protests.
 
After months of delays and waiting, KTI was finally granted their meeting with the Urban, Wellbeing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan (right) but after the two-and-a-half hour meeting, both sides said they could not resolve anything.
 
Having labelled KTI many times as trouble-makers standing in the way of the RM800 million incinerator project, credit must be given to Rahman for agreeing to meet the group behind closed doors.
 
Two bidders for project
 
KTI representatives said they made the most of the meeting by bringing in their experts to prove that the incinerator was unnecessary and to show the minister they were not protesting for the sake of protesting.
 
According to those present, Rahman, however, kept insisting the government had to follow safe management and that the 1,000 tonne incinerator to replace the current waste transfer station was the only solution and the most suitable. 
 
KTI members added the minister said the project will be scrapped if it did not meet the requirements of its detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) report. Despite, saying this, he continued to insist that the incinerator was the only solution, they said.
 
“Rahman also announced that bids for the project's tender have been narrowed down to two bidders. Asked who they were, he said he had no knowledge as the matter was under the purview of the Public Private Partnership Unit (Ukas). 
 
"Rahman also claimed the tender requirement was open in that it was not geared solely around incinerator technology and that anyone could come in and propose any technology," said KTI representatives. 
 
Build-and-operate facility
 
“(With regards to the DEIA report and the tender) the minister said it was all about juggling cost and technology. He claimed that at the last cabinet meeting, it was decided that other technologies be introduced to other areas.
 
"In Tanah Merah, multiple technologies were introduced – an anaerobic digester, incinerator and landfill. Rahman said the international tender called for the Kepong incinerator project was for neutral technology,” said KTI.
 
(Anaerobic digestion is a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.)
 
“KTI then informed him that there was only one anaerobic digester project among the bidders (for the Kepong project) but the minister kept talking about standards the ministry had to follow.
 
“He said he would like to know why people were against incinerators and what standards were acceptable for everyone. He said that for the government, there had to be some internationally accepted standards to follow,” said the representatives.
 
“Rahman said if the standards were internationally accepted, then that was how their parameters were. He also stated the winning bidder would not only build the incinerator but would also operate it.”
 
Failures brushed aside
 
When pointed out by waste management experts brought in by KTI that the Pangkor incinerator project has failed, the representatives said the minister brushed aside the debacle as'operation and design problems'.
 
They said every time they pointed out to the minister that existing incinerator projects in the country had failed, the minister insisted that such failures had nothing to do with incinerator technology.
 
“He refused to acknowledge the country could not continue to maintain the incinerators it had or that we did not have garbage disposal systems for such projects,” said KTI's experts.
 
The KTI representatives said although the minister was civil enough during their Jan 29 meeting, he kept harping on the fact that the incinerator was the only solution to Kuala Lumpur's garbage woes and that Kepong was already a waste transfer gazetted area.
 
KTI said their overall sentiment after the meeting was that their views were not taken seriously as the minister had already made up his mind.
 
“He said he was open to alternative waste-management systems but the trips to Japan which the ministry also sent residents' representatives only highlighted the alleged goodness of incinerators and nothing else,” said KTI.
 
The representatives said they were briefing the press on their meeting with the minister as they wanted the public to know what actually transpired.