Mohd Hidzir (fourth left) presenting lucky draw prize to a participant while Nyurak (right), Leong (third left) and others look on.
MIRI: The Environmental Quality Act 1974 will not be able to serve its purpose without total support and commitment from the public in environmental conservation.
In stating this, Department of Environment (DoE) state director Mohd Hidzir Bakar stressed that members of the public must share the responsibility of conserving the environment as envisioned by the government.
“We should be grateful that the government gives priority attention to cleanliness and the environment such as through the control of pollution.
“Thus, the people should support any programme on conserving the environment,” he said when closing the ‘Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Trial Programme and Increasing Public Awareness of Open Burning’ campaign at Pustaka Miri yesterday.
On the SOP trial programme, Mohd Hidzir said it was a public awareness activity to address the haze issue by preventing fire at peat lands.
“Actually, we have conducted the first SOP trial programme which only involved various government departments and agencies.
“Then, we received a request to involve members of the public in this programme. We strongly agreed that this programme would be meaningless without total support from the public.”
He said more than 100 people from various levels of society took part in the programme which was held in conjunction with National Environmental Day (HASN) 2017.
“The theme for HASN this year which is ‘Environment, Everybody’s Responsibility’ showed the government’s serious effort to make environmental quality a responsibility to be shared by everybody and not just the government.”
Also present were Deputy Miri Resident Nyurak Keti and Miri City Council permanent standing committee of community development chairman Cr Aries Leong Chin Hin.