Some landowners in Pontian, Johor, were allegedly paid up to RM15,000 to allow construction waste, believed to have been trucked in from Singapore, to be dumped on their plots.
Brokers who arranged the deals reportedly took a cut of the payments.
The waste had been arriving almost nightly for close to two years, with trailers rolling through villages like Parit Sikom, Kampung Parit Rambai and Mukim Sungai Karang.
Homes cracked from the vibrations. Debris spilled onto the roads, and motorcyclists crashed into it.
One resident, Ahmad Daud Saeng, 59, said nobody in the village knew who let the trailers in.
Authorities have since identified three sites: Jalan Kampung Sawah and Tanjung Bin in Pekan Nenas, where construction waste was dumped and used as landfill, and Jalan Kampung Sinar Harapan, where enforcement teams conducted a stakeout before intercepting a lorry actively disposing of mixed waste at an illegal dump.
SWCorp Johor has opened three investigation papers under Section 71(1) of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 – two against landowners at the first two sites, and one arising from the Sinar Harapan raid.
Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor, who led the joint enforcement operation on Wednesday alongside state assemblyman Md Israk Abdullah, said landowners bear legal responsibility for activities carried out on their land and that the Johor state government would not compromise with any party that conducts, causes, or permits illegal waste disposal.
Questions Over The Border Crossing
According to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng, every trailer crossing the Johor-Singapore border should leave a paper trail.
“Who inspected the cargo? Who checked the documents? Who allowed it to enter?”
Pontian’s district police chief said complaints involving overloaded trailers fall under the jurisdiction of the Road Transport Department (JPJ).
Johor’s state government has already put a special task force in place, pulling together the police, the district office, local councils and SWCorp, said Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor.
Officials are weighing charges under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and customs import regulations, according to state committee chairman Md. Israk Abdullah.
One dump site in Sungai Karang has already been taped off under a stop-work order. Kosmo’s ground check found the nightly convoys had stopped.
Residents said they are relieved, but it remains unclear how many landowners received payments and how many dump sites have yet to be identified.
