Alexander launches the garbage collection service by KDC at Nanga Ngungun as Anthony (second right) and others look on.
KANOWIT: The longhouse community in Nanga Ngungun here has been getting garbage collection service from Kanowit District Council (KDC) since Nov 1.
KDC secretary Anthony Luta said the collection is done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
As bulk bins were still not available, he said the residents had been told to leave their domestic wastes by the road side for collection.
Yesterday, Ngemah assemblyman Alexander Vincent allocated RM60,000 from his minor rural project (MRP) grant for KDC to buy the bulk bins for Nanga Ngungun.
He said the bulk bins with the capacity of 660 litres each cost around RM1,000 to RM1,500 each.
“They will be distributed to 25 longhouses, a primary school, churches and a clinic at Nanga Ngungun,” he said when officiating at a programme on ‘Environmental Education’ organised by KDC at Rumah Austin Kilat in Nanga Ngungun yesterday.
“Nanga Ngungun community will be able to use the bulk bins starting next year.
“I am giving the fund for the purpose so that the community at Nanga Ngungun will not have to wait longer to use the bulk bins,” he said.
On the programme, he said environmental cleanliness was one of the important issues in Nanga Ngungun besides socio-economy.
According to Tuai Rumah Lakun Laga, before the collection service by KDC the longhouse residents at Nanga Ngungun had no other option but to dump their domestic wastes into Sungai Ngemah.
His counterpart Tuai Rumah Sebastian Ko said the wastes dumped into Sungai Ngemah attracted crocodiles as they were frequently sighted sunbathing by the riverbank.
Nanga Ngungun is a resettlement scheme set up by the now disbanded Rajang Area Security Command (Rascom) during the communist insurgency in the 1970s.
It has 25 longhouses and a population of about 2,000.