(From left) PTNJ director Taufik Bahar, Neelsen, Raven, Iskandar Puteri mayor Datuk Mohd Haffiz Ahmad and SWM Environment general manager Mohd Norlisam Mohd Nordin at the MOU signing ceremony at Wisma PTP in Iskandar Puteri.
Despite Johor government’s efforts to keep the environment clean, more than 100 tonnes of rubbish is fished out every month from Sungai Skudai and Sungai Tebrau.
Johor tourism, environment, heritage and culture committee chairman K. Raven Kumar said this clearly showed the public’s lack of awareness on the importance of keeping rivers free from rubbish.
“The Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) and Iskandar Puteri City Council (MBIP) had reported that broken television sets and refrigerators were hauled out from the rivers.
“This is why Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi has introduced the ‘Johor Bersih’ initiative under the Greater Johor Baru agenda to clean and protect our environment,” he said.
Raven was speaking after witnessing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) Sdn Bhd, SWM Environment Sdn Bhd and Johor National Park Corporation (PTNJ) at Wisma PTP in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.
He said the government’s main focus now was on carrying out more engagement programmes to educate people on the ills of dumping waste into rivers.
“We are targeting families and the younger generation as part of this effort because the state cannot continue collecting rubbish while people continue to carelessly discard waste.
“It is pointless to talk about environmental sustainability or introduce new policies if we cannot raise the level of awareness among the people,” he said.
He added that the state government alone could not solve the rubbish problem.
Raven said PTP in the MOU stated its commitment to replant 160,000 mangrove trees in Tanjung Piai over the next five years to protect biodiversity.
“The MOU with SWM Environment is to establish a community recycling centre to raise public awareness on reducing, reusing and recycling using the KITARecycle platform,” he said.
Raven added that the state government needed continuous support from the private sector, non-governmental organisations and the public to protect the environment.
PTP chief executive officer Marco Neelsen said the MOU was part of its sustainability framework by integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into its core business.
“This will enable us to implement better management programmes not only for our stakeholders, employees and tenants but also for the surrounding communities.
“This means that sustainability is embedded into everything that we do, from how we manage our business to how we operate as a terminal operator. The aim is to contribute to the societal development of the country,” said Neelsen.
