Chan Weng Keng, who chairs the Bar’s Environment and Climate Change Committee, said judges should be empowered to issue writs of continuing mandamus. Such a writ directs the guilty party to continue with a decreed action, such as the clean-up of a polluted river, until the purpose of the judgment is satisfied.

“We don’t have that now,” Chan told FMT. “It’s a crying shame because the environment is the basis of our existence.

“You can send people to jail and you can fine them, but who is going to pay for the clean-up? Is it going to come from the taxpayers, the federal government or the state government?”

Former natural resources and environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar recently suggested that Putrajaya table a bill to give itself more power to act on matters affecting the cleanliness of rivers. He noted that such issues were currently handled by state authorities.

Junaidi’s call followed the discovery of toxic chemical waste in Johor’s Sungai Kim Kim.

Chan said the separation of powers between the states and the federal government was indeed a source of problems when it came to protecting the natural environment.

“Many resources, such as rivers and forests, are state-controlled,” he noted.

“To have coordinated federal environmental policies, you need coordinated governance between the states and the federal authorities.

“You need to deal with the consistency of the laws. Some state laws may not be consistent with federal requirements.”

Bernama reported earlier that clean-up teams had completed their work on a 1.5-km stretch of Sungai Kim Kim.

It quoted Yeo Bee Yin, the minister in charge of the environment, as saying that relevant agencies would continue to monitor the river.

The clean-up began on March 13 and bags of soil, sludge and polluted water were disposed of under the Department of Environment’s supervision.

Thousands of people in the Pasir Gudang area sought medical treatment after inhaling toxic fumes from the river and several schools were closed.