JOHOR BARU: Creating awareness programmes on environmental cleanliness will continue to be on the state government's agenda despite no significant changes in the public’s care for the environment.
Johor tourism, environment, heritage, and culture committee chairman K. Raven Kumar said the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) has collected more than 30 tonnes of waste from Sungai Skudai every month for the past two years.
“So since 2021, we have continued to collect 30 tonnes of waste every month only from one river in Johor Baru.
“If we use our logic, these numbers of waste should have shown signs of reducing in numbers, but the reality is that even when we are aggressively continuing to clean our rivers, there are always irresponsible people that will do the opposite.
“Despite this, punitive action is still not an option because we wanted that awareness to come naturally without any force,” he said when met by reporters after visiting Sungai Parit Pinjam, here, on Thursday (May 25).
The Tenggaroh assemblyman added that the state government, through the Johor Bersih taskforce, has identified 11 hotspots for Sungai Skudai alone.
“Sungai Parit Pinjam is one of the hotspots that we have identified, meaning that the waste that flows into Sungai Skudai came from here.
“Our current approach right now is to address these issues from the source in the hope that we will finally make some progress,” he said, adding that DID can collect about three tonnes of waste in a month in Sungai Parit Pinjam alone.
