Mining is safe, Bukit Koman residents told

By SIMON KHOO
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/5/25/southneast/3952210&sec=southneast

RAUB: Bukit Koman residents can rest assured that mining activities near their homes will not affect their health.

State Local Government, Environ­ment and Health Committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said the relevant authorities had been directed to monitor the area closely and furnish the state with reports from time to time.

Hoh said the task had been given to the Environment, Health, Minerals and Geoscience departments.

“Geologists will check the mining site every week. Every three months, a medical team will carry out health inspections on residents living in the vicinity.

“The team will take water samples from the area to ensure it is pollution-free,” he said after chairing a meeting with representatives of the three departments here recently.

Hoh said the reports would be discussed during the weekly exco meetings and that precautionary measures had been put in place to safeguard the health of residents.

He said the latest report showed that 60 houses with 246 occupants had been inspected and declared safe.

Water samples taken in April showed no signs of contamination, while early this month, health authorities detected 0.03mg/l of cyanide, which was within the permissible level, he said.

Teras assemblyman Choong Siew Onn said a group of residents had filed a suit against the Environment Department and the mining firm.

The issue had put the authorities in a fix as the residents had staged numerous protests against the firm for using cyanide in the mining activities.

On April 28, a vocal protester was found dead in his durian orchard and this raised suspicions, leading to the lodging of a police report.

A post-mortem by Raub Hospital revealed that Chong Sow Peng, 63, had died of a heart attack, allaying fears that he had succumbed to cyanide poisoning.