Stop treating rivers as garbage dumps: Jannie
Published on: Monday, September 16, 2019
Jannie (right) with volunteer S M Muthu (second left) and Community Development Leader (in vest) Vincent Wong.
Kota Kinabalu: State Law and Native Affairs Assistant Minister, Jannie Lasimbang, urged communities living along waterways not to treat the rivers and drains as garbage dumps as that would increase health risks from contaminated water.“We should adopt the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) concept for the disposal of garbage at the Kayu Madang landfill,” said Jannie, who is also Kapayan Assemblyperson.ADVERTISEMENT
“Let’s co-operate and work together for a better environment and healthier lifestyle.” She added the 3R concept can help reduce wastage, conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy.
Jannie was launching a six-week recycling campaign, covering 14 kampungs, commercial centres and taman (parks) in Kapayan.
“We hope the community in Ganang will send the recyclable and segregated waste to the Taman Suria Recycle Centre every week,” said Jannie at the Dewan Raya Kg Ganang, Kepayan, the venue to kick off the 3R Segregation of Trash Campaign.
Every kampung in Kapayan will have four bins for recycling collection (BRC) to separate paper, metal, plastic and waste glass.ADVERTISEMENT
The campaign is in collaboration with the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia. The Kayu Madang landfill serves Tuaran, Kota Belud, Kota Kinabalu and Putatan.
C. K. Chong from the Foundation disclosed that it collects about RM20,000 worth of recyclable items in Kota Kinabalu every month. This works out to about RM300,000 each year to help those less unfortunate.
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“More and more people are now aware of the importance of recycling,” said Chong.
“This has helped reduce the indiscriminate disposal of garbage.”