Malaysia: Institutional arrangement for environmental management

The Department of Environment (DoE) is the primary authority with regard to the environment in Malaysia. It comprises of five Divisions; 1) Administration Division, 2) Control Division, 3) Development Planning Division, 4) Assessment Division, and 5) Information Technology Division. It also includes 13 other State offices, one of which is the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur has its own State-level agency to handle its environmental problems and regulations. Its main function is to monitor sources of pollution from smoke and noise pollution from vehicles and works closely with City Hall of Kuala Lumpur in its environmental monitoring and enforcement.

City Hall of Kuala Lumpur has eight departments that deal with planning, impacts resulting from development, management or monitoring of environmental pollution and other directly or indirectly related aspects in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

Pollution monitoring under the City Hall of Kuala Lumpur is very wide in scope, where as the DoE focuses on more specific areas, previously mentioned above - smoke and noise pollution from vehicles.

With regard to enforcement, City Hall considers that enforcement concerning premises and factories should be turned over to DoE, along with enforcement of specific noise pollution control measures.