MELAKA (March 20): The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) is closely monitoring the water level of dams in the country, said its Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

He said it is important to ensure that cloud seeding can be done to increase the water level in the dams so that they can supplied water to users.

"Sometimes there is a request from the state, if the water catchment dam (level) is too low, then we will see if it is appropriate to do it (cloud seeding) or not but so far there has been no request yet.

"We will take several factors into account (before doing cloud seeding) because the cost involved is high... which means when we do a public seeding operation, we want it to be successful, otherwise it will just be wasted," he said.

He told reporters after witnessing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Signing Ceremony between Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) and Megatrex Plastic Industries Sdn Bhd here on Wednesday.

UTeM was represented by its vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Massila Kamalrudin together with Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (FTKILP) Prof Dr Hambali Ariff while Megatrex Plastic Industries Sdn Bhd was represented by its managing director Datuk Lim Kah Chuan and Megatrex Johor chief executive officer Datuk Ayub Rahmat.

The MOA is a collaboration in the form of research and development of non-hazardous electrical and electronic waste classification protocols as well as a green control mechanism for international trade which is a proactive and significant step in developing the country's recycling ecosystem.

Commenting on the MOA, Nik Nazmi said the findings from research related to electrical and electronic waste will be used as information for the government to develop a framework for policy related to such waste at the national level.

He said Malaysia is expected to have about 24.5 million units of electrical and electronic waste in 2025 and it is a very serious issue to be addressed in the future.

He said, however, it also gives the country an opportunity to generate income through 'urban mining' activities to recover metal and rare earth materials found in electrical and electronic goods.

"This is one of the alternatives to conventional methods that (before) had a big impact on the environment," he said.