KUCHING: Teaching the public to keep the environment clean is not an easy task, said former general manager of Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) Datuk Rodziah Morshidi.
But how did BDA manage to keep Bintulu clean?
“There are the two crucial prerequisites — public engagement and public involvement,” said Rodziah.
“Once these are in place, the council needs only to initiate the first few cleaning campaigns.
“And when the results are seen and felt by the communities, they will initiate these campaigns by collaborating with the council as their co-partners.”
Rodziah said the first thing she did when she first helmed the council was to identify the main causes of littering in the town.
The next step was to get the public involved in discussing and solving the problem.
“Generally, everybody wants to live and thrive in a clean house and a clean city.
“Strengthening community engagements are part of the process of empowering the local communities,” she told New Sarawak Tribune during an exclusive interview at the Sarawak State Library here on Monday (Dec 7).
Rodziah also pointed out that a community-centric approach would also lead to self-regulation and motivate the public to take actions voluntarily.
“This is in addition to stressing the importance of a cleaner environment to the people,” she said.
