Zakaria Ismail said news of the “final” approval by the department of environment (DoE) for the reclamation project yesterday came as no surprise.
However, he said, this had renewed the vigour of the fishermen to “fight back against those intent on throwing sand into our rice bowl”.
In 2021, Zakaria led 185 fishermen from Penang’s southern coast to mount an appeal against the “three islands project” and succeeded in revoking the environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval granted by the DoE then.
“We will appeal just like last time,” said Zakaria, who is the deputy chief of the Penang Fishermen’s Association.
Yesterday, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government had obtained approval for the project based on a new EIA, with 71 conditions attached.
The environmental appeals board unanimously ruled in the fishermen’s favour in 2021 on grounds that the project was yet to be gazetted under the 2030 Penang Structure Plan.
The state government lost in its attempt to reverse the decision at the High Court as it had exceeded the three-month grace period to file the appeal. A fresh EIA application was then submitted by the state on April 29 last year.
Penang Forum’s Khoo Salma Nasution said the federal government and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim might be in the dark about how the PSI project was being carried out.
She said they were likely under the impression that the project would finance public transport projects such as the proposed Bayan Lepas LRT, expected to cost about RM10 billion.
Khoo said that based on estimates by experts from Penang Forum, the reclamation would be carried out by a private company at a cost of RM6 billion and later sold for RM8 billion, with just 30% of the RM2 billion profit (RM600 million) to be given to the state government.
“This is not even enough to finance 10% of a LRT project,” she said. “The figures and ownership structure of the three islands have changed many times since 2015. This does not inspire confidence.”
Environmentalist Anthony Tan said the approval came as a disappointment. He said a referendum should be held to gauge Penangites’ support for the project.
The RM10 billion PSI reclamation project is a state government initiative to finance the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan. The three islands, with a land area of 1,821 ha, will be located off Permatang Damar Laut.
PSI project delivery partner SRS Consortium Sdn Bhd (SRS) will reclaim one of the three islands. FMT has reached out to SRS for comment.