Wednesday August 18, 2004 - PETALING JAYA: The Selangor Government willdirect the Department of Environment (DOE) to check on palm oil millslocated along Sungai Selangor which are suspected of illegally dischargingeffluents into the river.

The move is to check the risk of losing the population of fireflies inKuala Selangor.

Selangor executive councillor in charge of Multimedia, Environment and NewVillages, Datuk Ch’ng Toh Eng said there was a possibility of industriesupstream of Kuala Selangor discharging their effluents into the riverwithout first treating it.

There are two palm oil mills in Kuala Selangor - one in Kampung Kuantanand the other in Bukit Rotan.

Both mills are not allowed to discharge their effluents into the river, hesaid.

Chng, who was commenting on the report that fireflies were dying offbecause of alleged pollution from illegal palm oil discharge, said the DOEhad been monitoring the situation periodically.

He said both the mills, which were located a distance away from the river,were to reuse their wastewater for their agricultural activities, and notdischarge it into the river.

It is estimated that the firefly population has dropped to only about 40%.

The berembang trees along the riverbank are old and are susceptible topollution from the river. Our immediate measure is to enrich the area withnew trees of the same species to help the area recover faster.

We will also look into how we can increase the number of snails in thearea, which the firefly larvae feed on, he said.

Selangor state executive in charge of tourism Datuk Dr Lim Thuan Seng hadsaid at the State Assembly on Monday that the swampy Sungai Selangorstretch in Kuala Selangor had been polluted by oil palm waste illegallydischarged by factories in Kuala Selangor, Rawang and Batang Kali.