Environmental autonomy transfer from fed govt to Sarawak to be carried out in phases, says Deputy Premier

KUCHING: The transfer of environmental autonomy from the Federal Government to Sarawak under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) will be carried out in phases, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

In the first phase, he said, the Sarawak government planned to take over administrative power on the management of scheduled wastes starting in 2025.

"We will take over the management of industrial effluents, air quality control and environmental impact assessments in later phases," he told the Sarawak Legislative Assembly during his winding-up speech on Wednesday (May 15).

Awang Tengah said a framework for implementing the transfer of autonomy was prepared by the state Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) in August last year.

He said the framework consisted of a steering committee, a technical committee and four working committees on legislation, human resources, system development and infrastructure.

"On legislation, the Sarawak government is in the process of amending the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance to include the relevant provisions which will enable NREB to take over environmental powers from the Federal Government," he said.

Awang Tengah said NREB was developing a scheduled waste management system called Environmental Information System Sarawak.

He said it would be on par with the systems used by the Environment Department such as the electronic scheduled waste information system and the electronic environmental control system.

In addition, he said the Sarawak government had approved organisational restructuring and human resources requirements to ensure a sufficient and competent workforce.

"If there is a need to absorb personnel from the Sarawak DOE into NREB, it will be discussed first by the Public Services Commission and Malaysia DOE before being implemented," he said.