Residents demand Penang reject 70-acre Jelutong reclamation

The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee (ProtectKarpal) has asked the Penang government to reject the 70-acre (28.3 ha) reclamation proposed under the Jelutong landfill rehabilitation project, and to announce before the project's 18 October 2026 deadline whether it will terminate the 2020 joint development agreement with PLB Engineering Berhad.

The group's statement of 23 September 2026, published by Aliran, follows two earlier ones on 14 and 17 September and turns on the wording of the agreement itself, which ProtectKarpal obtained after the Penang Freedom of Information Appeals Board ordered its release on 30 June.

What the statement says

• Reclamation was never in the tender. PLB's revised proposal of July 2016 contained no sea reclamation. At the signing in February 2020, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said "up to 10 acres of additional land would be reclaimed for embankment works and perimeter wall". The environmental impact assessment displayed in February 2025 showed 70 acres — seven times that figure.
• The agreement limits the extra land to the perimeter. Clause 1.1.1 defines the "additional area" as land the developer rehabilitates beyond the existing 84 acres, but only "as required and approved by the Relevant Authorities to secure the perimeters for the purpose of the Developer carrying out and completing the Rehabilitation Works only". ProtectKarpal reads the EIA as devoting almost all of the 70 acres to processing and recycling excavated waste, and says a need for processing space "does not, by itself, establish a need for perimeter security". The authorities, it argues, should approve only the acreage a perimeter actually needs.
• The fill. Using material recovered from the dump to reclaim the sea "risks creating another landfill within the reclaimed coastline". Calling it recycled does not make it safe; the group wants independent testing appropriate to marine reclamation.
• The exit exists. Chow has cited legal complications in deciding the project's future. Clause 18.1 allows the state to terminate on not less than 30 days' notice where it considers this necessary in the state interest, for state security, or for state or public policy; clause 18.2 leaves that determination to the state. If the state expects compensation claims, it should name the clauses and explain its assessment.
• Disclosure. The state has released the main agreement but not its schedules and appendices, which set out the rehabilitation scope, site boundaries and conditions. Residents "should not have to pursue successive appeals to understand a public agreement affecting Penang's coastline".

The group's four demands: reject the 70 acres and confine any additional area to clause 1.1.1; account for the expansion, including its technical, contractual and approval basis; announce the clause 18.1 decision before 18 October 2026, serving notice if it terminates or explaining why it will not; and publish the complete agreement.

"The public deserves a clear answer: how much additional land is actually needed to secure the landfill perimeter?" said chairman Dr K Ganesh. "The state should enforce that requirement, explain its decision on termination and publish the complete agreement."

The state's position

Chow's statement of 3 June 2026 remains the standing reply. The 28.3 ha, he said, is not a new project but part of the safe-closure project that went through PDC's 2015 request for proposals: about 4 ha (10 acres) is a buffer to stabilise the perimeter, and about 24 ha (60 acres) is needed to house 20 sets of recycling machines in enclosed temporary buildings, because landfill gas makes open-air recovery unsafe for nearby residents and for the machinery. Any works in the additional area remain subject to approvals, and none have begun.

On 5 August the state executive council granted PLB an extension to 18 October 2026 to meet the technical agencies' conditions — the Department of Environment has returned the EIA "not approved" five times since May 2024. Chow said in July that this would be the final deadline and that the project would not continue under PLB without approval.

What happens next

Three outcomes are possible by 18 October: an approved EIA, in which case the fight moves to the size of the additional area; a further extension, which ProtectKarpal has said would cost the government at the polls; or a termination notice under clause 18.1, which would leave the state holding a closed but unremediated 34 ha dump.

Read all about it: Jelutong landfill and the Karpal Singh Drive reclamation — our standing page on the project, with the full history from the 1970s dump to the 18 October deadline.

Enlarge

Cover photo: the Jelutong landfill with the project outline in red, Penang Property Talk.