EQMP System Will Provide Early Warning on Environmental Pollution - Minster

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- The Environmental Quality Monitoring Programme (EQMP) system launched Tuesday will serve as a real-time early warning mechanism for air, river and marine pollution, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. He said the system would not only assist in the formulation of environmental policy, but also in ensuring speedy enforcement actions through data obtained from enforcement activities and project planning developments. Environmental monitoring data on the haze, oil spills, industrial pollution and illegal disposal of waste and toxic hazards would be channeled to the Environmental Data Centre, which would act as a guide in implementing immediate mitigation strategy, he said. “If collision of vessels or illegal desludging were detected, the EQMP system will be able to monitor the direction of the oil sludge according to tidal currents. “With this system, we can work closely with neighbouring countries in the event of marine pollution as it involves 398 monitoring stations as new components in marine water quality monitoring," he told reporters after launching the EQMP and the National Environmental Control Centre (NECC) here Tuesday. Wan Junaidi said the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry had also entered into an agreement with Pakar Scieno TW Sdn Bhd for the EQMP implementation for a period of 15 years with an implementation cost of RM846 million. He said the company provides integrated environmental monitoring solutions for effective environmental management. “Previously during the haze season in the country, many people questioned the ability of the air quality monitoring stations in reading real air quality levels, as in Singapore. “Now, with 65 new automatic stations and 14 new manual air quality monitoring stations, we have the capability to monitor fine particles of less than 2.5 micrometers,” he said. On the NECC, Wan Junaidi said the centre would be located at the Department of Environment (DoE) headquarters where air, river and marine data obtained from environmental quality stations nationwide, would be analysed before being channeled to end users in real time and to enable DoE to take immediate action, in the event of a pollution. -- BERNAMA