KUALA LUMPUR — The Department of Environment (DOE) has collected RM4.59 million in fines linked to environmental pollution cases following thousands of inspections carried out nationwide between January and April this year.
In a statement, the department said a total of 5,074 inspections were conducted on 4,339 premises regulated under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 from January 1 to April 30, 2026, Bernama reported.
The inspections covered a wide range of sectors, including crude palm oil mills, natural rubber processing facilities, scheduled waste recovery centres, sewage treatment plants, and other industrial operations with potential environmental impact.
“Based on the inspections and investigations conducted, the DOE has taken 3,149 follow-up enforcement actions against parties found to be non-compliant with the Environmental Quality Act 1974,” the statement said.
The enforcement measures included 1,587 directive notices, 1,369 compounds, 44 equipment operation detention actions, two licence suspensions, 18 prohibition orders, and 129 investigation papers for prosecution.
The DOE added that 148 cases had been completed through court proceedings, resulting in convictions and fines totalling RM4,598,500, along with one custodial sentence of one day.
During the same period, the department carried out 1,906 enforcement operations targeting vehicle smoke emissions, inspecting 137,722 vehicles nationwide. It also conducted 811 inspections on projects approved under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework.
To curb illegal imports of scheduled waste, 51 inspection operations were carried out at major ports, covering 702 containers suspected of carrying such waste. Of these, 427 containers were found to contain scheduled waste, including electrical and electronic waste.
Following the findings, 73 directive notices were issued requiring the containers to be returned to their countries of origin. To date, 53 containers have been successfully repatriated.
Monitoring of open burning was also intensified, with 3,237 investigations conducted nationwide, including checks on 494 detected hotspots.
The DOE said technological tools were increasingly being used to strengthen enforcement, with 409 drone flights carried out to support monitoring, surveillance, and investigation efforts.
“Throughout the first four months of 2026, DOE received a total of 6,252 environmental pollution complaints, and every complaint was investigated according to the stipulated customer charter period,” the statement added. – May 28, 2026