GEORGE TOWN (April 27): The Penang South Islands (PSI) reclamation project has the support of the majority of the people in the state since it first started in 2013.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow (pictured) said the project previously know as Penang South Reclamation had gone through a long process of over eight or nine years, before it finally obtained the environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval.
“Even during the election, we laid it on the table, and in the manifesto as well as for the people to decide, and they have decided. The majority have decided to support the PSI,” he told reporters here on Thursday (April 27).
On Wednesday, Chow announced that the EIA report for the PSI project had obtained approval from the Department of Environment (DOE) under the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change.
Meanwhile, when asked about opposition to the PSI project from environmental and fishermen groups, Chow said the state had always been open about the project, and that it had nothing to hide.
He explained that the state cannot stop any party, whether a political party or non-governmental organisation (NGO), from politicising the matter.
It was reported on Wednesday that Sahabat Alam Malaysia had appealed to the authorities to reveal the 71 conditions imposed by the DOE for the EIA approval for the project.
Chow said the 71 conditions were pertaining to Sections A to Q, and further information on the project can be referred to the Penang Infrastructure Corporation’s website.
“Actually, the conditions imposed by the DOE are contained in the approval annex given,” he said.
The PSI is a project to develop three artificial islands, with an area of approximately 1,700 hectares in the waters of Permatang Damar Laut near Bayan Lepas.
However, the project received objections from the fishing community and environmental NGOs in the state, because it would allegedly affect the marine ecosystem.