"I'm so happy to hear this. Now our lives can return to normal again!" exclaimed Kampung Broga resident Alice Lee on being told that the RM1.5 billion incinerator project had been scrapped.

"I'm going to announce this good news to our committee and residents now. We will call for a meeting to discuss our next course of action," she said in an immediate reaction when contacted today.

"This is a surprise ... it is very sudden but we are happy. We want to hear the official announcement so that we can relieve ourselves from the pressure of the last four years."

Lee was responding to a malaysiakini report yesterday which quoted Singapore's Business Times as saying the project had been scrapped.

Contacted today, the Housing and Local Government ministry confirmed the government had served a termination notice to the project's contractors and that a compensation claim from the latter was filed subsequently.

A ministry spokesperson said both events took place '... quite recently, say, within the last two weeks'.

The ministry is the proponent of the project to build a 1,500-tonne maximum capacity incinerator plant - touted as the region's biggest burner of its kind - which was slated to come on-line next year.

The Business Times had also reported earlier that the consortium comprising Japan's Ebara Corp and local partner Hartasuma Sdn Bhd had filed a claim for compensation amounting to RM500 million.

What notice?

When contacted, however, a Hartasuma official denied both reports of the Business Times.

"There is no confirmation of this development at all. We have not received any notification from the government and we're not aware of anything," said the official who declined to identify himself.

"I don't really know where they (Singapore media) are getting all this information from. I hear all these things from people but we are the contractors and we haven't heard anything.

"In fact, we have been reporting on the progress of the project and the fortnightly meetings with the ministry have been going on for the past two years."

He declined to elaborate further.

Ongoing battle

The mammoth project was relocated to Broga in November 2002 after suburban residents in Puchong mounted a massive protest campaign including a threat to swing their votes in favour of the opposition.

That relocation decision dramatically changed the lives of Lee and more than 200 of her fellow Broga villagers who have persistently protested the project on grounds that it posed a serious threat to public health, the environment and their livelihood.

They also challenged the merits of the proposed technology from Japan, a country which holds the world record for having the most number of industrial and municipal solid waste incinerators.

A suit filed on Nov 8, 2003, seeking a court order for full disclosure of the project's details is pending trial at the Shah Alam High Court.

"We thought the matter will be settled in court or through an announcement by the Department of Environment to say that the site is unsuitable," said Lee.

"We will also have to see what the government lawyers are going to say in court on (tentatively) Sept 22."

Recounting the last few years, Lee, who is a Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator sub-committee member, said many villagers had been living with anxiety because "... every time we hear different news of the project, we get nervous about the whole thing".

"At least now, we can concentrate on our life and work, maybe travel a little to relax our minds."

Return land

She said residents in the Klang Valley should also feel happy as they will continue to get clean water to drink.

"Our kampung (village) will remain the same, clear and clean with a very nice atmosphere."

Referring to the Business Times reports, Lee noted how the Singapore media was able to get information on the Broga project while a media blackout was enforced locally.

Another sub-committee member Lee Kim Sin said he had read about the compensation claim in a local Chinese-language newspaper.

"The news was on a Singapore media report that Ebara and the local consortium are claiming for compensation from the Malaysian government.

"We are waiting for the government to officially announce that the incinerator project is now shelved," he said.

"We hope the local media will publicise this development. The government will also have to officially announce it so that whatever cases pending in court and further preparation can be called off."

He said the Selangor government should also return the land already acquired for the project to their respective owners.