Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn Bhd (KPC) Chief Operating Officer, Khasbullah A Kadir said he had prepared a special plan to address the problem but it could not be implemented within a short period.

“KPC spends RM1 million per month to clean the bauxite waste and if the plan is implemented by mid-year, we believe the process of exporting bauxite will be a cleaner affair by between 60 per cent and 80 per cent,” he told reporters today when commenting on press reports that bauxite stored in the Kuantan Port area had caused the water in Sungai Balok and Pantai Batu Hitam to turn red recently.

The situation had raised concern among local residents and environmentalists who want the government to stop bauxite mining to check pollution.

Khasbullah said heavy rainfall had disrupted the cleaning process using special machines and the workers had to use shovels to remove the materials from the roads.

“As such, we were not able to prevent these substances from flowing out. Moreover, the amount of bauxite involved is large and was not in one location.”

He said to avoid a recurrence, a special area for storing bauxite should be made available to enable the port to handle it better and more systematically.

The Pahang state government had identified an area for storing bauxite and was awaiting approval from the State Executive Council.

– BERNAMA