Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenakshi Raman said a fresh environmental impact assessment (EIA) would also be needed as newer wave projections must now be considered.
Earlier today, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow announced that the two other reclaimed islands planned under the PSI project would be dropped, and no fresh EIA would be required. Putrajaya’s regulators approved the project last month with 71 conditions.
The decision to scale down the project was made by the Penang government after being urged to do so by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Putrajaya has also given the assurance that the federal government would undertake the island’s first light rail transit (LRT) project.
“The chief minister should not move too fast. When the project design changes, the hydrological patterns change as it involves the sea. If the two other islands are not to be built, then the currents and coastal patterns change. This is just one example,” Meenakshi told FMT.
Meenakshi, who is among PSI’s vocal critics, said according to conditions set for the three islands project, the environment department (DoE) must be informed about design changes.
“Hence, the need for a fresh EIA. The chief minister is not the authority to say that the EIA is not needed. That is left to the DoE director-general.”
Penang Forum’s Khoo Salma Nasution said it was also wrong to assume that there would be less impact on fisheries since only one island would be built.
She said when the second bridge was built in 2008, fishermen in the southern coast, where the island is to be reclaimed, suffered from a drastic drop in their catch.
However, the situation had improved since 2014, the same year the second bridge was completed, she said.
Khoo also said the fishermen’s catch had reduced in several parts of Penang, including in Tanjung Tokong in the north and also in the Penang Channel, due to reclamation work.
She said fishermen from other parts of Penang – Seberang Perai, Tanjung Tokong, Balik Pulau and south of George Town – were coming to Teluk Kumbar, an area in the southern coast, to fish.
“Now you are asking them to put up with a reduced catch for 20 years, and in 20 years time is Chow going to be around to ensure the rehabilitation of the fisheries, or to make sure that they will not proceed with the rest of Island A, B and C?”
Meanwhile, Pen Mutiara, the official group representing 1,600 fishermen, said the reclamation work would affect the state’s biggest area for prawn spawning.
“We can earn from RM300 to RM600 daily in that area, while some 60 boats ply the area daily. Next month, some 600 boats will come from the northern states. So, we are totally against the project,” its president Ibrahim Che Ros said.