Global Environment Centre (GEC) director Faizal Parish said the current penalties under the act – a maximum fine of RM500,000 and maximum jail term of five years – are not enough.

“RM500,000 may sound like a lot, but environmental damage or pollution can cause millions of ringgit in damage.

“It also leaves an impact on the lives and livelihoods of many people,” he told FMT.

The energy, science, technology, environment and climate change ministry recently said it had no plans to amend the act to provide for stiffer punishments.

Its deputy minister Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis said the existing act was adequate to penalise offenders, but did not deny the need for better enforcement of the law.

Faizal suggested that other penalties be imposed as well, including the cost of cleaning up the damage and compensation for affected parties.

He said the courts were a problem too, as they tend to impose only minimal fines for environmental offences. He compared this to the severe penalties handed down in countries such as Indonesia and China.

He added that another problem was inadequate resources for monitoring and detection of breaches in laws by enforcement agencies.

GEC’s forest and coastal programme manager Nagarajan Rengasamy agreed that the present act was not sufficient to tackle current issues.

“Problems relating to the environment are becoming more complex. Malaysia has environmental regulations and enforcement laws but without being strengthened and empowered, it will worsen our environmental crisis.”

Meanwhile, former president of the Malaysian Nature Society Maketab Mohamed said the government needed to amend the Sewage and Industrial Regulations under the act.

He said prosecution of factories for non-compliance should be based on the load of the pollutant. “Presently we are just second guessing the total loads being discharged into our rivers, especially urban rivers,” he said.