Issues on Environmental Management Through Legislative Measures in Malaysia

The management of the environment through legislative measures is not new in Malaysia. The first attempt to address the problems of land degradation and silting in water courses due to mining activities through legislative measures was made at the close of last century. Since then a number of other environment-related legislation was made covering various aspects of the environment. To date, there are at least 43 pieces of environment-related legislation which are still in effect. This paper examines the management of the environment through legislative measures in Malaysia. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of environmental management through legislative measures in Malaysia in relation to specific  environmental issues such as water quality, air quality, solid waste management and noise pollution. The enforcement of legislation especially for the control of water pollution discharges from prescribed premises has been quite successful. However, for the control of air and noise pollution, the enforcement effort has been quite slow and not very effective and may be on the other hand which is more acute; the relevant legislation is simply not enforced. It is suggested that all the available environment- related legislation together with the institutional arrangement to be given a thorough review to ensure a more effective enforcement. ABSTRAK Pengurusan alam sekitar melalui tindakan undang-undang bukanlah sesuatu yang baru di Malaysia. Percubaan pertama secara undang-undang bagi mengatasi masalah kemerosotan kualiti tanah dan kelodakan air yang disebabkan oleh kegiatan melombong telah dilakukan di akhir kurun yang sudah. Sejak itu beberapa undang-undang lain yang berkaitan dengan alam sekitar telah diwujudkan. Kini terdapat sekurang-kurangnya 43 undang-undang yang berkaitan dengan alam sekitar yang masih dikuatkuasakan. Kertas ini membincangkan pengurusan alam sekitar melalui langkah undang-undang di Malaysia. Kekuatan dan kelemahan langkah-langkah ini dinilai dengan rujukan kepada isu-isu tertentu alam sekitar seperti kualiti air dan udara, pengurusan pembuangan sisa pepejal dan pencemaran bunyi. Penguatkuasaan undang-undang terutama dari segi pencemaran air dari tempat-tempat yang telah ditetapkan agak berjaya. Tetapi bagi pengawalan pencemaran udara dan bunyi bising, langkah penguatkuasaannya kurang berkesan dan pada sebahagiannya yang mungkin lebih mendesak undang-undang yang berkaitan tidak langsung dikuatkuasakan. Adalah dicadangkan supaya semua peraturan yang berkaitan dengan alam sekitar dikaji semula bagi memastikan keberkesanannya.