State Executive Councillor for Tourism, Nature, Green Technology and Consumerism Elizabeth Wong said the state government had its own ways of detecting businesses that caused pollution.

“We choose not to conduct big-scale operations as when we do that, the factory usually gets wind of it. When we do it (raids), we do it periodically, and quietly.

“We move in when we get reliable information about such premises,” Wong told the Selangor State Legislative Assembly today.

Wong was responding to a supplementary question from Johan Abdul Aziz (BN-Semenyih) as to whether the state government planned to conduct operations against businesses operating along the Semenyih river.

He said this was necessary to prevent a recurrence of the Semenyih water treatment plant being shut down due to water contamination, causing water supply disruption to millions of households in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

According to Wong, the Kajang Municipal Council had so far issued compounds against 87 business premises in the district for causing water pollution.

“Last year, we shut down and cancelled the operating license of a factory in Semenyih which produced huge volumes of acid discharge.”

Selangor has suffered 16 cases of water contamination so far this year, affecting millions of households each time.

To overcome the problem, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and the Selangor Government have agreed to form a joint task force, comprising representatives from various agencies under both the federal and state government.