THE transfer of environmental autonomy under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) will be carried out in phases.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said in the first phase, the Sarawak government intends to take over authority over scheduled waste management starting in 2025.
“Meanwhile, aspects such as industrial effluent management, air quality control and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) management will be taken over in the subsequent phase.
“To strengthen the implementation of the environmental autonomy transfer process under MA63, an implementation framework has been prepared and endorsed by the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) on August 2, 2023,” he said in his ministerial winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today (May 15).
Meanwhile, Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Natural Resources and Urban Development added that the Sarawak government is in the process of amending the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance [Cap.84 (1958 Edition)] by adding relevant provisions as the basis of authority to enable NREB to take over comprehensive environmental autonomy from the Federal Government.
Additionally, he said NREB was also developing the Environmental Information System Sarawak (EnvISS), which is a scheduled waste management system equivalent to that used by the Department of Environment such as the Electronic Scheduled Waste Information System (eSWIS), Mypremis, and Electronic Environmental Quality (eKAS).
