PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: In a bid to diffuse the mounting criticisms played up in the Malay press, Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim is calling foreign experts to assess the RM100 million pig farm project approved for Sepang.

He said the Selangor government will hire foreign to carry out an in-depth study to support the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study as an assurance to the public that there would be no problems arising from the implementation of the project, which was expected to take a year, according to Bernama.

He said the EIA study had already been done by the previous Barisan Nasional state government which had also visited such operations in Germany and the Netherlands to see the technolopgy being used at the facilities.

"We are very transparent about the project and will inform the people accordingly, so that they will understand what we are doing.

"We will disclose the actual cost of the project, the size of the area involved, number of breeders and number of pigs to be reared at this modern facility," he told reporters after opening the annual general meeting of the Gabungan Ikhtisas dan Usahawan Bumiputera Anak Selangor (GIBS), in Shah Alam Friday (12 Apr).

Khalid was responding to the statement by Environmental Protection Society Malaysia adviser Dr Gurmit Singh who asked that the findings of the EIA study be made public.

Gurmit said to date, the state government had never disclosed the findings to the public, including when was the study approved and by whom.

Responding further, Khalid said the state Agriculture Modernisation, Natural Resource Management and Entrepreneur Development Committee chairman, Yaakob Sapari, would go to the ground to explain the matter to the people, especially those living around the area.

He said the residents would also be informed of the state government's three options to resolve the issue -- whether to allow the pig farms in various parts of the state to continue operating and polluting the environment, to close down all of them or locating them in one place using a modern system.

Khalid said in handling the issue, the state government would also form a special team to see to all aspects of the implementation of the pig-rearing project.

The pig farm issue has been played up by Malay papers especially by Utusan Malaysia which gave extensive coverage, including editorial and readers’ letters, opposing the project since it was announced last week. The main criticisms centred on religious sensitivities of Malays living nearby as well as water pollution by pig wastes.

Khalid Ibrahim had said that the project was approved by the previous Barisan Nasional but this was immediately denied by the recently ousted Selangor mentri besar Dr Khir Toyo. But the later retracted this and said that the approval was only in principle and for a smaller farm. Several NGO’s have also joined the protest against the pig farm project. (MySinchew)