A two-hour meeting between Broga residents and the housing and local government ministry has done little to clear their doubts in relation to the incinerator project to be built close to their village in Semenyih.

Led by the Broga sub-committee chairperson Dr Zulkefly Mohamad Omar, a group of villagers met with secretary-general Lokman Hakim Mohd Jasan on Dec 24.

Zulkefly said the group put a number of questions to Lokman. The most pressing of these was why Broga was chosen as the site of the RM1.5 billion waste disposal plant.

According to him, Lokman replied that it was a coincidence, because the Selangor government had earlier expressed its intention to create a waste disposal area there.

"We were told that the area had been earmarked by the state government and that it became the obvious choice after residents around the initial site at Kampung Bohol in Puchong firmly opposed the incinerator," said Zulkefly.

The project was relocated to Broga in November 2002, and immediately tiggered a protest there as well.

Zulkefly said Lokman confirmed that the letter of award (LOA) to the contractor was issued prior to the statutory requirement for an environmental impact assessment study, but that he did not elaborate on this.

The EIA report was later approved by the Department of Environment with conditions that were incorporated into a revised letter of award.

In February 2003, the government hired Tokyo-based Ebara Corp to design, build and operate the 1,500-tonne plant touted as the world's largest fluidised-bed gasification and ash-melting incinerator.

Ebara was given until the end of last December to agree to the revised LOA. To date, company officials have yet to confirm if they have accepted the new terms.

Land required?

Zulkefly said the state land office had issued land acquisition notices to about 20 families in early November for the purposes of building access roads to the incinerator plant.

He said an officer at the land office had told residents that this was on the instruction of the ministry.

"But Lokman denied that the ministry had directed the land office to do so...he denied any knowledge of this," Zulkefly said.

The sub-committee plans to meet the director of the Selangor land office on Friday to clarify the matter.

Zulkefly said only part of the land would be acquired for the construction of the access road.

"The rest is designated as off-limits to villagers because according to the notice, they cannot occupy, farm or conduct any form of economic activity on the remaining land."

He said it is easy to infer that there is danger due to the proximity of the land - mainly used for durian orchards, rubber smallholdings, vegetable farms and fish ponds - which sits between one kilometer and 400m from the site.

"We want a proper clarification from the land office," he stressed.

No power

Zulkefly said Lokman had also failed to satisfactorily clarify the government's policy that prohibits development projects on hillslopes with a gradient of 25 degrees and above.

"The EIA report clearly states that 50 percent of the land where the incinerator project is sited is on a hillslope. The government is going against its own policy," he said.

"Lokman told us that although he was the project director, he had no power to call off the project, but did not say why."

In mid-December, the Broga sub-committee submitted a protest memorandum to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak via an aide.