Yong (squatting) and his wife, Datin Mary Yong celebrating Chinese New Year with the disabled children at Taman Jaya Likas yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: The State Government is aiming to prolong the use of the Kayu Madang landfill in Telipok, said Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Edward Yong Oui Fah.
Yong said it was true that the Kayu Madang landfill might be fully utilised within three years from now.
However, he said efforts such as waste segregation would be undertaken to prolong the use of the Kayu Madang landfill.
He explained that waste at the Kayu Madang landfill comes not only from Kota Kinabalu but also from Putatan, Papar, Tuaran and even as far away as Kota Belud.
“So the waste is indeed increasing every day at the landfill,” he said at the Chinese New Year celebration held by the the Kota Kinabalu Community Development Leader at Taman Jaya Likas near here,.
Among the efforts to be undertaken were recycling and the segregation of kitchen waste generated by eateries within the Kota Kinabalu area, he said.
“We may ask eateries and restaurants in KK to segregate their kitchen waste. We need to look into this. We will call them up to work together because right now, kitchen waste is just wasted.
“We can turn them into compost and segregate the waste instead of just dumping them,” he said.
Yong added that that new mayor, Datuk Yeo Boon Hai, was also looking into this.
At the same time, he also expressed his support to the aspirations and plans that have been uttered by Yeo upon his appointment as the new mayor.
This included turning Kota Kinabalu into a green and clean city.
“We all support that because no one wants a dirty city. He has a few other than this, which was also in line with the vision he wanted. And we support this,” said Yong.
He added that the Stage Government had provided an annual RM1 million allocation to clean up the beaches and the islands and the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry also has its own allocation to clean up the islands that were ridden with garbages.
“What the government has given is not enough but with the new mayor and new plan, hopefully the government will look into providing more allocation to clean up the beach and the city,” he said.
At the same time, Yong also said that only genuine Sabahans would be considered for affordable housing schemes in Sabah.
“We will screen through the applications first,” he said when asked on the eligibility of applicants applying for the scheme.
He added that aside from being a Sabahan, the applicants must be from the low income group and do not own a house.
He also said that the scheme was to reduce the incidence of squatters on government land and stressed that Sabah was in need of more of such housing schemes.