Deal struck to manage waste in mosques and tahfiz

PUTRAJAYA: Waste at 845 mosques and surau in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, as well as 62 registered religious schools and tahfiz institutions, will now be handled more efficiently.

The Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) and the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) are working together on the matter.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two was inked yesterday and witnessed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar and Local Government Develop-ment Minister Nga Kor Ming.

Speaking to reporters after the signing of the MOU, Nga said among the initiatives emphasised in the MOU were the implementation of toilets in mosques and surau of BMW (clean, attractive and fragrant) standards, the construction of a drive-through recycling centre in mosques with a large area, and the implementation of zero waste at Jawi offices and premises.

The MOU also covered Jawi-supervised activities and school recycling competitions, in addition to introducing the concept of hygiene, recycling and avoiding waste, Bernama reported.

Meanwhile, Nga also said the largest composition of waste in Malaysia is food waste at 44.5%, with the situation becoming of concern during Ramadan.

“Based on observation at all 92 Ramadan bazaars for a week, it was found that the amount of food waste thrown away by bazaar traders is on average 53 tonnes per day.

“While the average waste per business unit per day is as much as 9.5kg per day in Kuala Lumpur and 7.3kg a day in Putrajaya,” he said.