SABAH TODAY

BY SABAHTODAY
KOTA KINABALU: Penampang district alone disposes about 4,800 tonnes a month (57,600 tonnes a year) of solid wastes. Imagine the statistics for the whole State.

Waste disposal, according to Kapayan Assemblyman Jannie Lasimbang, is a huge problem and is damaging the environment.

She said that the limited number of disposal of both organic and non-organic waste in Kapayan is serious. Shopkeepers in Beverly Hills and Bundusan areas have been putting up with the bad garbage smell for years, she pointed out.

“In particular, since the garbage collection site in Beverly Hills commercial area shoplots is located in the parking area, shopkeepers have been complaining of the bad smell.

“I planned last year to build a proper garbage collection site but the present site is deemed expensive, and not very suitable” Jannie explained.

“For village areas, residents do not have much choice to dispose their waste so they either burn, bury or throw their garbage in places available to them” she added.

Lasimbang suggested biogas digesters for organic wastes and recycling of non-organic wastes which also provides a good opportunity to create economic activity while revolutionizing waste management.

But residents have to segregate their trash.

“For the last two years, my Team Alam Sekitar Kapayan (TASK) have done a programme to segregate trash and promote 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), composting and mudball-making for villages and some apartments in collaboration with Tzu Chi and Kivatu Nature Farm.” Jannie said

“We also constructed a Biogas Digester at Taman Kendara 1 to help and educate the residents and the community that biogas is suitable for disposing biodegradable wastes from raw materials such as agricultural waste, dirt, municipal waste, plant materials, or food waste.” Jannie added.

But according to a written reply to her question by the Minister of Local Government and Housing at the State Assembly, there is still no waste segregation for Penampang district.

“I want to urge the Ministry to come up with an implementation plan and enact a by-law to this effect, since it has repeatedly expressed the need to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals” said Jannie.

“Will the Ministry of Housing and Local Government build Biogas Digesters to dispose waste and manage organic waste such as food and kitchen waste in housing and village areas?” Jannie questioned.

Biogas is a renewable energy and is eco friendly. It is a simple and low cost technology that encourages a circular economy and should provide it all over Sabah.

“I hope the Sabah government will adopt this technology to turn waste to resources” Jannie said.

With the biogas digesters, we can create a cleaner Kapayan with efficient waste management and the community that is responsible and involved in environmental sustainability.