KUCHING: Plaza Merdeka, a prominent shopping mall here, has notched another feather in its cap when its toilet facilities were adjudged among one of Malaysia’s cleanest and among Asean’s best.
The other four toilets are at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Restoran Foh San in Perak, Masjid Cina Melaka and the Rantau Abang Public Toilet.
Plaza Merdeka won the prestigious Asean Public Toilet Standard 2019-2021 award that was handed out in conjunction with the Asean Tourism Forum in Ha Long City, Vietnam, last Friday.
The Sarawak mall took the award for its commitment in maintaining toilet cleanliness.
These toilets in Malaysia have been adjudged as among Asean’s cleanest and most user-friendly toilets.
The award for the cleanest Public Toilet in Asean was decided through surveys conducted separately by several agencies and then compiled by Tourism Malaysia.
Asean is made up of 10 member states, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Brunei and Laos.
The shopping mall’s general manager Cheah Kheng Mun attributed the success to what he described as “tremendous teamwork from the housekeeping professionals all the way to his colleagues in the management team.”
“We were invited by Tourism Malaysia to participate in the campaign several years ago but declined because we felt that we were not ready then, but last year when Tourism Malaysia presented us with the challenge, we took it up.
“We did not want to do things haphazardly, what we wanted is consistency so now that we won the award, we will be in the watchful eye of the public and must be able to continue with the same or even higher standards of excellence,” he explained.
Cheah also said that the success was achieved due to the team which he leads that are made of all races in Sarawak, which has an ongoing excellent working relation.
Hillary Manung, Plaza Merdeka operations manager, explained that there were 25 staff members in the housekeeping team to maintain all the toilets as well as the general cleanliness of the entire mall.
All the toilets have one attendant to constantly maintain the cleanliness and are required to go about their work according to a checklist provided which is open to scrutiny by members of the public.
Amongst other things that Hillary pointed out was that a QR code is displayed at all entrances of the toilets for the public’s feedback.
Nur Rahman, 50, a cleaning technician who has been part of the team for over five years, was also a proud man. He felt that this award was a testament to their work ethics and commended the management team for providing them with a jovial and pleasant working environment.
