For the environment: PSDC staff giving out the EMAS starter kits to Bayan Baru folk. 

ABOUT 1,000 households in Bayan Baru were given free EM (Effective Micro-organism) Activated Solution (EMAS) starter kits in an effort to encourage the community to use the eco-friendly product.

The households received the starter kits from the Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) on Saturday during the launching of its Greening Penang initiative.

PSDC chief executive officer Datuk Boonler Somchit said the households were encouraged to make and use EMAS for their household cleaning, and the waste water flowing into the Sungai Nibong Kechil at the Free Trade Zone Phase 2 could ultimately improve its water quality.

He said PSDC was starting with Bayan Baru, and would begin monitoring the situation with the Penang Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) in three months.

DID director Hanapi Mohamad Noor said the department had tried to use mudballs with EM solution at the Sungai Nibong Kechil in December 2007, but it was not sustainable as the department was working on its own at that time and was not tackling the problem at the source.

Pollutants were still flowing into the river from the surrounding houses, shops and factories. This Greening Penang initiative is more focused on tackling the problem at the source with the support of the community,” he said, adding that the department would begin throwing mudballs into the river by year-end to bring about a faster result.

CIMB Penang regional director Liew Chee Cheang said the company was sponsoring a year’s supply of EMAS worth more than RM100,000 under the initiative. Suiwah Corporation Bhd was also a sponsor.

The Greening Penang initiative is part of a series of events to commemorate PSDC’s 20th anniversary celebration in November, and organised as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.