Penampang: Two-way communication, support and cooperation from all levels of the society are vital for the protection and conservation of the environment.Natural Resources and Environment Minister, Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid, said this was because the responsibility to address pollution in the environment is not the Government's alone.
"The notion that it's the Government's responsibility is incorrect because every citizen has a duty to preserve the environment since we all breathe the same air," he said.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry, Datuk Sazmi Miah, read his speech at the presentation of certificates and Sustainable School-Environmental Awards 2005/2006 at SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin, here, Monday.
Also present were Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Karim Bujang and Penampang MP Donald Mojuntin.
In this respect, Azmi said pushing all the responsibility to the Government was really unfair.
However, he said educating the people to protect the environment such as on proper rubbish disposal methods was not an easy matter.
He said this was due to the fact that this had much to do with the attitude and habit of humans.
"Nevertheless, this effort is not impossible to achieveÉwe need to continue making efforts to change the society's perception on conservation that has been neglected all this while," he said.
He said the Government does not want to impose the law to "force" the rakyat in applying the recycling process.
Rather the creation of various awareness campaigns and environmental education programmes proves that the Government is serious in its effort to address the problem.
But at the same time, Azmi said they want to make recycling a culture among the people so that it would become a habit in their daily lives.
The law, he said, is not the ultimate solution to create awareness in society on the importance of protecting the environment.
He said continuous education was more likely the answer to address the problem.
Pollution, he said, is costing the Government money, time and energy when it could be easily and effectively prevented, if only there is a change in attitude and commitment among the people.
He said the National Environment Policy, which outlines management and environmental conservation in the context of sustainable development, was built upon economic and social development.
The principles behind the policy, Azmi said, is to continue with the progress of economy, social and culture, apart from enhancing people's quality of lives.
"In other words, physical, social and economy development would be meaningless if we fail to preserve a clean, safe, healthy and productive environment," he said.
He said this is also in line with the Vision 2020, which entails, among others, continuous land productivity, fertile and rich with nature's diversity.
According to him, the policy outlined seven strategies that were jointly formulated by the society, Government, private sector, schools, families and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Among the main strategies is a focus on formal and informal environmental education and awareness as well as dissemination of environmental information so that more people would understand the issue.
Azmi said the main target of this focus are students who have been identified as beneficiaries and future leaders of the nation.
He said the Sustainable School-Environmental Awards is actually not a new programme but an "umbrella" to strengthen the process of implementing environmental education in school.
The integrated approach emphasises on four components, namely, management, curriculum, co-curriculum and greening that involve all levels in the school including Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs), government agencies, private sector and NGOs.
"The award implementation would encourage more schools to be serious in the responsibility to the environment," he said.
On other developments, Azmi said environment-related activities need to be carried out hands-on by schools.
At the regional level, he said the Asean Secretariat is currently preparing the draft for the Asean Environmental Education Action Plan (Asean AEEAP) 2006-2010.
He said the plan is meant to enhance awareness levels on the environment for sustainable development and also to encourage Environmental Education among Asean members in line with the United Nations Decade of Education on Sustainable Development (UNDESD).
Meanwhile, SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin won the Secondary School category of the Sustainable School-Environmental Awards, while SRJK © Chi Hwa, Sandakan, the primary school category.
Both schools received RM10,000 for their effort.
