The State Government will give a RM1 million allocation to City Hall (DBKK) next year to improve waste management in the city.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the move was part of the effort to ensure cleanliness in the State Capital so as to attract more tourists.
“I was made to understand that DBKK spends RM150,000 to manage waste annually, so I want to allocate RM1 million next year to enhance waste management and clean-up efforts.
“We want to show outsiders that Kota Kinabalu (KK) is the gateway and window to Sabah,” he said when launching the City Hall’s “KK Moving Forward” programme, here, Thursday.
Shafie said there is no point having high-rise buildings but not creating values for communities such as no indiscriminate dumping of rubbish or having facilities such as elevators that do not function.
“We need to develop the soft skills of DBKK staff and ensure comprehensive public transportation. If we have good culture, tourists will not just come but buy properties here,” he said.
Shafie said he hoped the allocation would go to infrastructure provisions such as garbage cans and cleanliness programmes, as well as appointing more contractors for clean-up activities.
Meanwhile, Mayor Datuk Nordin Siman said they have listed six items as their direction to further develop the city, including turning KK into a green and clean city as well as creating a conducive business environment.
He said the “KK Bersih” campaign would look at several components in the educational and awareness aspects with NGOs to counter the problem of littering, reduce single use plastics and encourage recycling.
“It is hoped that with such collaboration, it can assist us to improve cleanliness in KK, especially the alarming floating rubbish problem.”
He said the people’s aspirations towards City Hall were high and the “KK Moving Forward” programme aimed to bring City Hall towards success and to inspire its personnel to increase their productivity and service delivery system.
Meanwhile, City Hall is to come up with a complete database system to effectively monitor the growth of squatter areas.
Nordin said the system can help to identify squatter areas for the purpose of control and assistance.
“This is one of the approaches designed to create an effective squatter management system and to provide adequate settlements.
“The creation of the management system is among the six missions dedicated to the city of Kota Kinabalu,” he said.
Nordin said City Hall had expanded the participation of agencies in the district squatter committees by involving the Local Government and Housing Ministry, Health Department, Customs Department, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd and Sabah Water Department.
He said the committees also acted on reports on growth and health and social problems in the squatter areas.
Nordin said under the Smart City Action Network, City Hall was selected to conduct a smart city study in the Kuala Menggatal area.
The study, to be completed in October, is to develop a land-use planning scheme to resettle over 7,000 households in squatter areas, he said, adding that such planning can help resettle squatters and provide employment.
The event also saw the swearing-in of several City hall Advisory Board members for 2019-2022.
The new Advisory Board members are Datuk Zaleha Rose Pandin, Datuk Joannes Solidau, Datuk Michael Lui, Datuk Alexander Decena, Datuk Quek Siew Hau, Frederick Chang, Dennis Chia, Mary Juney George, Sitti Bahaya Damsal, Ismail Japar, Datuk Clement Yeh and Abdul Razak Jamli and Mursidi Sapie.