400 cubic metres of solid waste collected per day

By Gerald Chung, 29/1/2008

KUCHING: The 25km stretch of Sarawak River maintained by the Kuching City North Hall (DBKU) collects an average of around 400 cubic metres of solid waste per day from the eight traps set along the river.
Last year, over 41, 700 cubic metres of solid waste were collected from the river, despite facing an increased act of vandalism and theft regarding the traps.
This was disclosed by Environment Health Officer Basheer Ahmad, who is in charge of DBKU Drainage and Green Areas Management at a press conference here yesterday.
Basheer said that most of the solid waste collected by the traps comprised 95 percent vegetation while the remaining were domestic waste from residents along the Sarawak River.
“The Drainage and Green Areas Management spend around RM500, 000 on the river cleaning effort especially in maintaining the cleanliness of the river to avoid solid waste from floating down river, especially to the areas along the Waterfront.
“Hence, contractors and workers from the council ply through the river to ensure that solid waste does not pass through the trap,” he said.
He said that the Sarawak River, from the upper reach until the lower reach, was around 112km and passed through the areas of the Padawan Municipal Council (PMC), DBKU and the Kuching City South Council (MBKS).
“The main area concerned is the 25km stretch maintained by DBKU with every effort made to ensure solid waste does not float down river.”
Basheer said the traps, which were built at a cost of RM2,000, were set mostly at the upper reach of the river.
The sites where traps are in place to catch the floating solid waste are along Kudei, Gita Laut, Sungai Maong, Maong and Paroh.
The solid waste collected from the river is then dumped at a waste collection dumping ground located at Maong.
“The trap at the upper reach of the river will catch all vegetation and domestic waste and prevent it from flowing down river.
The final safety net will be the traps set along the areas near Satok and Sungai Bintangor,” he said, adding that maintainance of the traps required a lot of hard effort because, of late, they were the target of theft and vandalism.
He said there had been cases where the traps laid along the river were cut and the steel cables stolen, which hindered the cleaning effort carried out by the council. “The valuable part of the traps are the steel cables which help trap floating solid waste.”


I remembered during the regatta a few years back, this DBKU guy was picking up rubbish from the river at the pontoon in Kuching Waterfront, the moment he turn back on his route, the place was full of water bottles and rubbish again. Just the mentality of the locals....cis...cis...