Witnessing the handover of a motorised tricycle and rubbish bins to residents of Kampung Orang Asli Simpang Arang in Gelang Patah are (from left) Faizal, Liew, Noore, Marina and Pandak (on motorised tricycle). The village will run a pilot project that collects rubbish from individual houses twice a day.
AFTER more than seven decades of living without rubbish collection services, villagers of Kampung Orang Asli Simpang Arang in Gelang Patah, Johor, finally have a structured system in place.
Iskandar Puteri MP Liew Ching Tong said a pilot project had been introduced to ensure the Orang Asli community had consistent and proper access to waste management.
“It will be managed by the villagers who will make sure the surroundings are more pleasant, organised and efficient in terms of rubbish collection.
“A total of RM20,000 was allocated for the pilot project, with a villager appointed and paid to collect household waste twice a day.
“Funds were also used to purchase a motorised tricycle and rubbish bins,” he said before the handover of the vehicle and bins to the community.
Additionally, each of the 180 households in the village received a waste bin under the initiative, said Liew, who is also Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister.
The collected rubbish will be placed at a designated disposal site, for collection by contractors.
Discussions with SWM Environment Sdn Bhd and Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) were held to establish a collection schedule at the main disposal site, he said.
“Both SWM Environment and SWCorp have agreed to conduct waste collection four times a week.
“At the same time, a meeting with UEM Sunrise Bhd has been arranged to discuss the construction of a proper rubbish facility as the land used for the disposal site belongs to the developer.”
Village Tok Batin Noore Kasi expressed gratitude for the initiative, saying the issue had plagued his community for 72 years.
“We wanted to clean up our village but we did not have rubbish bins.
“Now that we do, I hope we can get a bigger bin at the disposal site because this village generates up to 200 rubbish bags a day, which one bin cannot accommodate.
“This leads to people to throwing rubbish on the ground,” Noore said.
He also appealed for more assistance from the government towards providing adequate housing for the community.
Noore hopes to build more units under the hardcore poor housing programme (PPRT) for the second- and third generation of Orang Asli families.
Aid from Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa), he said, remained limited due to insufficient allocations.
“We can only build one or two PPRT houses a year.
“This is a serious matter as many from our community have started their own families but are yet have homes of their own.”
Also present at the event were Johor Jakoa director Faizal Long, Skudai assemblyman Marina Ibrahim and Kota Iskandar assemblyman Datuk Pandak Ahmad.
