Litterbugs trash new Waterfront Riverine Jetty
MIRI: The newly completed Miri Waterfront Riverine Jetty was a sorry sight with rubbish littered all over, just a day after a major cleaning campaign collected more than 2, 000 kg of rubbish.
“On Saturday ( Nov 24), Miri City Council organised a cleaning campaign participated by a huge group of volunteers from National Youth Skills Training Institute ( IKBN), Natural Resources and Environment Board Sarawak ( NREB), Sarawak Rivers Board ( SRB), Department of Environment, among others.
“And the same evening, irresponsible citizens trash it again,” said chairman of Malaysian Nature Society, Miri branch (MNS Miri) Iqbal Abdollah in disappointment.
An environmentalist, Iqbal has been urging the local community and government to seriously look into the problem of littering.
“To really keep Miri Ocean, the river and its surroundings clean, we need to tackle it at the rootlevel, which is the people.
“The riverine jetty is a first class facility built by the Sarawak government for the people and visitors to enjoy and relax but visitors responded with third class mentality by trashing the place and expect the council’s contractor to clean up their mess,” he added.
A ground check at the jetty by The Borneo Post yesterday found five to six roll- on, roll- off rubbish bins empty but a lot of rubbish around the bins and all over the jetty.
Iqbal opined that having many trash cans do not help. Civic consciousness is a habit that must be nurtured from young.
“The young emulate adults, therefore it is the responsibility of adults to be examples of the right habit so that the young learn to clean up after themselves,” he added.
A netizen, Zainuddin Ibrahim who took to Facebook to criticise the irresponsible action of litterbugs received more than 70 comments from angry netizens.