RESIDENT of Kg Sembulan Lama cleaning up the rubbish near their house during the 'gotong royong' yesterday. - Photo by Aniq Azraei
KOTA KINABALU: City Hall has chosen Kampung Sembulan to be the first Kampung included in its 5K programme, as part of an effort to transform the village into an exemplary, clean and beautiful settlement area.
Located right in the middle of Kota Kinabalu’s rapidly growing area, the overcrowded village consisting of Kg Sembulan Lama and Kg Sembulan Tengah, has long been regarded as an eyesore.
The problem was not so much about the pale looking, dilapidated and sometimes illegal houses dominating the village, but notably the endless piles of rubbish everywhere that made it looked more like a landfill than a residential area.
For years, many attempts by various parties have been carried out to try make the village appear more presentable but none had been successful so far.
Now surrounded by resorts, hotels and commercial areas, Kampung Sembulan has remained notoriously dirty, smelly and uninviting to outsiders.
City Hall’s latest effort was to slowly change this and eventully turn the village into a more complementing traditional settlement that will add to the beauty and attraction of Kota Kinabalu.
City Hall Health and Urban Services Department Director Robert Lipon said the 5K programme was for the community and authority to join efforts in displaying excellence in five aspects namely cleanliness, beautification, security, orderliness and wellbeing.
The programme will be officially launched this Saturday by Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir.
“It is a long-term plan to provide a viable waste management for addressing garbage problem here,” he said to reporters during a gotong royong held yesterday as a prelude to the launching ceremony.
Robert said the programme was designed to encourage villagers to adopt recycling habits, to gather the old garbages around their houses and collect the new ones to be sold to waiting buyers.
He explained a committee will be formed from among the local community leaders, who would collect recyclable waste from the villagers to be sold to an appointed contractor.
The committee would also take the lead in other initiatives for improving cleanliness, promoting awareness and educating the villagers on cleanliness issues.
“Five garbage centres are provided here and the committee led by the village development and security committee (JKKK) chairman of the respective villages will instruct residents to bring all their garbages there.
“DBKK’s role is simply to monitor this and collect the garbage from the centres. Meanwhile, for garbage that can be recycled, two centres operated by a private recycling company will be opened here,” he said.
According to Robert a similar initiative was carried out before but the villagers lost interest when the global prices of recyclable materials dropped significantly.
However, with the prices now soaring, he said the garbages will have more value and the residents would likely be interested again.
Based on the last survey, there were about 400 houses in the village, mostly stilt house built on now stagnant shallow coastal water.
There were currently about 3,000 registered voters at each kampung but the actual number of residents could be at least five times that number, with some of them undocumented immigrants.
Robert said City Hall also wanted to have all the houses numbered to make it easier to identify and compound those who are found with garbage within their lot or vicinity.
On the progress of the 5K programme in Menggatal town, he said there has been some visible improvement in landscaping and cleanliness there, although it was still a long way before the objective of the programme could be fully met.
Menggatal was the first commercial area chosen for the 5K programme launched end of last year.
Kg Sembulan Lama JKKK chairman Imran Manap and Kg Sembulan Tengah JKKK chairman Ajim Wahid both expressed their gratitude that the authority has chosen their village for this programme, as they say government’s assistance is crucial in overcoming the garbage issue there.
The gotong-royong which started at 7.30am in the morning, was participated by 150 residents and mostly children as it coincides with the school holiday.