GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has reiterated that it will proceed with the Penang South Island (PSI) project, subject to approval, despite objection from various quarters.
Yesterday, the G25 group of prominent retired civil servants had called on Putrajaya to stop the PSI project immediately to protect the livelihood of fishermen.
Responding to the group, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said such a call was nothing new to the Penang government.
He said many people would object without knowing the full details of the project and the tedious process the state government had undergone with the various technical agencies.
"That is why we are still continuing with our stakeholders' engagement, presenting to the environmental minister, and the agriculture and food security minister because it involved fisheries and seafood production in the state.
"So, we are very open. If the G25 group requires a briefing, we will continue to engage them, so that they can understand what we propose to do to mitigate the various ecological, environmental and other impacts when the project is implemented," he said today.
He was met after the official launch of Armenian Park, Penang's first augmented reality park here.
Yesterday, the G25 group had said that the previous federal government gave its commitment to achieve the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and that the reclamation project goes against several of these SDGs.
The group had also called on the Penang government to respect the rights of fishermen to protect their livelihood, adding that the fishermen won the appeal to revoke the 2019 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval for the project.
Pressed if the state government would continue to pursue the PSI project, Chow stressed that it would be subject to approval.
"Without approval, we definitely cannot proceed. But with approval, we can take all the mitigation steps that have been included in the application, so that at the end of the day, all environmental and ecological impacts would have been addressed with the proper solution," he added.
The PSI project, covering an area of 17sq km, involves the development of three man-made islands spanning an area of 1,800ha in the waters off Permatang Damar Laut, near Bayan Lepas.
It was introduced as a funding module for the Penang Transport Master Plan, which is estimated to cost about RM46 billion.
Fishermen had objected to the reclamation project since it was first introduced in 2015.
They scored a moral victory when they won an appeal to revoke the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval for the project in 2021, after the court allowed a preliminary objection by Zakaria Ismail, head of the fishermen's unit in Sungai Batu, and set aside the approval by the Environment Department for the project's EIA.
The EIA was deemed by the court as ultra vires, null and void according to Section 34A(4)(a) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974. The Penang government has since submitted a new EIA for approval.
The fishing community is against the project, claiming that it would destroy their livelihood and the abundant marine resources here.
They have expressed hope that the new government would not approve the new EIA.