Ipoh, The Cleanest City? - Ipoh Echo

1 Sept 2017

By Mei Kuan, Ili Aqilah and Khaleeja Suhaimi

Ipoh was recently named Malaysia’s cleanest city in 2016 ahead of Penang and 2015’s cleanest city, Johor Bharu. Based on the ministerial rating system, Ipoh scored 97.45. This was announced by the Urban Well-Being, Housing and Local Government Minister on August 14.

“When the rating system was first introduced in 2008, Ipoh scored only 3 stars, a decade later, 5 stars and was ranked first in the country. Ipoh is definitely the model to emulate when it comes to handling waste management,” said Tan Sri Noh Omar, Minister of Urban Well Being, Housing and Local Government during a ceremony held at Ipoh Convention Centre (ICC) recently. The other town in Perak that made it to the top ten is Manjung with 94.75 points.

Ipoh Echo sent its team to get feedback from Ipoh City Council, NGOs and members of the public regarding the award and determine whether Ipoh is indeed the cleanest city in Malaysia.

The Role of Ipoh City Council

Mayor Dato’ Zamri Man is a man with a mission. He is determined to keep Ipoh clean. He does so by organising activities such as gotong royong, cleaning drains, clearing illegal dumps and encouraging Ipohites to recycle trash.

His other efforts include erecting lamp posts along Kinta River, lighting up trees along the streets and planting new trees within city limits.

“In order to maintain cleanliness, the public must work together with us. What’s the point of getting five stars if we don’t play a part in achieving a sustainable environment?” said Zamri.

In conjunction with the Perak Yang Bersih (Clean Perak) campaign launched by Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri DiRaja Dr Zambry Abd. Kadir on March 31, the council has organised a dedicated cleaning campaign every third Friday of the month.

The campaign will be conducted throughout the year with different themes every month. The theme for August was Smart Partnership, September is on Green Run, October pertains to Car Free Day, November will be about clean rivers and landscaping while December is on recycled items.

A total of 74 gotong royong were held from the beginning of the year till August 12. A total of 10,876 illegal dumps were cleared.

Vandalism is a recurring problem in Ipoh. Those caught can be jailed for six months or fined RM1000.

In order to maintain the cleanliness, Ipohites should play their part. They should start by picking up rubbish they see on the ground. Most of us are of the impression that such simple acts amount to nothing.

We should start recycling instead of throwing away papers, plastics and aluminium. We do not realise how recycling can impact our lives.

The mayor has stressed a lot on going green and planting trees, in and around the city. In fact, every household is encouraged to have plants in their compound to increase the oxygen level in Ipoh.

Last year, Ipoh City Council in collaboration with Maybank planted 500 plants from Gunung Cheroh right to People’s Park.

“My gratitude and congratulations to Ipoh City Council for attaining this award. We’re very happy to achieve this and we hope to attain it every other year,” said Zamri at the August full-board meeting.

In order to maintain the 5-star status, Ipohites need to work hand-in-hand with the council. Upgrading the Kinta Riverwalk is imperative.

“We’ll improve the lighting and make things more conducive for tourists. The whole works will cost around RM4 million. My proposal is still being considered by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture,” Zamri remarked.

Role of Ipoh City Watch

Associate Professor Dr Richard Ng, President of Ipoh City Watch (ICW) cum Chairman of KOHIJAU shared his thoughts with Ipoh Echo on the matter, “The announcement caught Ipohites by surprise. Many accepted it with mixed feelings because there’s still a lot of illegal dumpsites in the city.”

“It’s not a surprise to me for many reasons. Firstly, Perak was declared the second cleanest state in Malaysia in 2016 by the Malaysian Tourism Board after Terengganu, based on certain criteria. Ipoh was also accredited by Lonely Planet as one the top 10 recommended destinations in Asia,” he added.

Among the criteria used include having strategic action plans, commitment to quality operations, innovations and creativity, use of ICT, integrity, good record keeping, handling of customers’ complaints and feedback, and media reports on activities of the council.  

Compared to the other local councils, Ipoh City Council has scored the highest points based on cleanliness. This includes environment-control activities with a maximum score of 3.25 points, solid waste management and disposal, and cleanliness of public places such as People’s Park and toilets which score 1.75 points, handling customers’ feedback and complaints with a score of 5.00 points, and community involvement, which include conduct of LA21 activities for a sustainable environment which score 10.00 points.

Thus criteria for cleanliness have a total score of 20.00/100.00 or 20% of the Local Government Star Rating system. Out of these 20 points, Ipoh City Council scored the highest among all the local councils making Ipoh the cleanest city in Malaysia.

“Credit goes to the mayor, Dato’ Zamri Man whose leadership got things moving to achieve the various key performance indicators set. Nevertheless, our Menteri Besar Dr Zambry Abd Kadir should also be thanked for this success. He was the man responsible for making Perak and Ipoh what they are today. Perak will soon be the cleanest state in Malaysia.”

According to Richard, many critics have tried to belittle our MB labelling him the garbage man not knowing that by going down with the mayor and the workers, he was setting an example to all local council staff to take cleanliness seriously. Zambry also launched the Clean Perak campaign on March 31 setting the stage for Perakeans to follow.

Ipoh Car Free Day, launched two years ago by the council, tree-planting campaign and tree tagging have also contributed towards making Ipoh the cleanest city.

“However, much still needs to be done by the council and the state government if we want to retain the cleanest city status. These include effective enforcement to ensure that perpetrators of illegal dumping are caught and prosecuted. The current fine of RM500 does not deter these litterbugs,” Richard pointed out.

“All business outlets must have a rubbish bin each before their business licenses are renewed. Cleaning must also be done twice daily by council workers, as practised in China and Japan. The workers must also be monitored and given key performance indicators as a form of motivation,” he added.

“The council must ensure its complaint and feedback system is people-friendly and can be assessed in different ways convenient for the people. The complaint system must be managed by staff who are people-friendly. They should receive complaints and channel them to the respective departments to handle within a certain timeframe. Those who complain and provide feedback regularly should be rewarded,” he said.

Last September, Ipoh was declared the 5th Social Business City in the world by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus during the Pangkor International Dialogue. The status requires Ipoh to practise the 17 sustainable development goals set by United Nations, one of which is related to sustainable environment. 

KOHIJAU-ICYCLE, for instance, has been playing a significant role in helping the government by educating the public through a reward-point-recycling system using the social business concept which enable participating NGOs, residence associations and schools and their members to keep 60% of the revenue earned from the sales of recyclables to assist in their activities.

To date, 18 of the 52 KOHIJAU-ICYCLE recycling bins, costing RM36,000, have been placed in various parts of Ipoh for the convenience of the public to recycle. This will help reduce at least 30% of the garbage from going to landfills and can help reduce illegal dumping. It too helps the local council to save cost on waste disposal.

“Since our launch in September last year, we’ve successfully signed up over 3000 recycling members contributing more than 30,000kg of recyclables. By end of 2017, we aim to instal about 100 bins and recruit a total of 10,000 members. Ipoh City Watch and KOHIJAU will collaborate with other NGOs as well as Rukun Tetangga to help Perak become the cleanest state in Malaysia,” Richard concluded.

Comments by Public

With a job that requires her to travel, Lim Bay Gie, 28, an Ipohite who is currently staying in Kuala Lumpur has mixed feelings when the news broke,

“Ipoh is definitely a clean city but certainly not the cleanest. There are certain areas in Ipoh with less waste but look at our public toilets, they’re still disgusting,” exclaimed Lim. Without the smelly toilets, Ipoh could be the cleanest, she reasoned.

We met poet Wani Ardy, 32, from Shah Alam who stays in Ipoh. He runs a bed and breakfast outlet named Rumah Ipoh.

“Ipoh is fairly clean but the cleanest in Malaysia? This means Malaysia isn’t clean. Take a look at Old Town. The streets are pretty narrow and narrow streets get dirty fairly easily. And what’s troubling is they’re not accessible by garbage trucks,” said Wani.

“People do recycle but most of them do it individually. We need to see more recycling bins at public places. The good thing about Ipoh is that the people are very careful with their money that’s why second-hand goods are in demand here. It’s great for sustainability as wastage is minimised,” added Wani.

For Goh Poh Ann, 19, a former Ipohite who is currently studying studio art in Pennsylvania was surprised when told.

“Although it’s been awhile, Ipoh seems to look cleaner than before. Perhaps the growing number tourists who visit the city has prompted the council to work harder to maintain the city’s image,” Goh reasoned.

https://www.ipohecho.com.my/v4/article/2017/09/01/ipoh-the-cleanest-city

Recycling Vending Machine - Ipoh Echo

1 Nov 2015

Business students from the Business and Marketing programme at Sunway College Ipoh took part in a competition by the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia (NAWEM) to come up with a business idea that would improve their local community in Ipoh. 

The Sunway College Ipoh team QUATRRO came up with a prototype in the form of a “Recycling Vending Machine”, named FAST (Funding As Social Trending), a non-profit social enterprise project.

This entry was selected as the recipient of NAWEM’s award. The competition was held for tertiary students in conjunction with The National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia conference on Saturday, October 3 at the Eastin Hotel, Penang. The award consisted of a cash prize of RM500 and a certificate.

The competition to turn great ideas into great business invited ‘early-stage’ idea entries that were not generating revenue or receiving financing of any form and to complete a “One-Page Business Pitch.” The pitch was to describe the business formation based on problem solving, proposed solution, the identified target market, key competitors, sales channels, marketing activities, revenue, expenses, milestones, team and key roles and partners and resources.

The FAST recycling vending machine features a trendy vending machine, to showcase recycling as a fun and creative activity rather than a chore. “We believe in giving this authentic choice to young people as a fresh start towards building a better community. Our area of business will be to collect and recycle plastic bottles and aluminium cans, and this idea was developed after conducting demographic analysis in Ipoh. The findings include the fact that landfills are filling up. The Bercham landfill consists mainly of plastic bottles and aluminium cans which can be recycled instead of dumped.”

“We believe that FAST will meet the critical need of the local municipality by providing a feasible and cost effective alternative to landfilling the waste, as we are also seeing municipalities as our potential stakeholder.

We are in the process to have our recycling vending machine in the Sunway commercial area, which is maintained by one of our partners, Amalexcia Enterprise, (Vending machine Manufacturers). Other than that, Malaysian Nature Society and also a few schools and colleges have expressed their interest in supporting our project.

Our primary objective is to create behaviour and change the mindset of young people by building a positive feeling about recycling. We aim to embrace recycling as a very cool and trendy concept and provide municipalities with an alternative waste disposal system. The Quattro business model presents an opportunity to recycle landfill-bound waste, save the landfill space, and create creative shared value partnership with the community.

We have collaborated with Malaysian Nature Society (Perak) and are looking forward to creating SEO-optimised website to provide incentive to our customers in future, to encourage their participation, by establishing shared value partnership with corporations, for example, AEON Kinta City, who has already embraced the 3R’s programme as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. We are looking at the possibilities of partnering with Starbucks and Lost World of Tambun. We are planning to advertise in Ipoh Echo, a community newspaper in publishing news and articles related to environmental issues.

We hope to reduce pollution by two per cent and set a new benchmark for recycling within the first two to five years. Last but not least, our product is a value added, recycling choice that appeals to the growing environmental conscientiousness among consumers to promise a better future for everyone.” said the Quattro team.

Making Ipoh A Liveable City - Ipoh Echo - April 1, 2015

The revamped and rebranded Ipoh City Watch (ICW) was officially launched by Dato’ Hj Samsudin Abu Hassan, Executive Councillor for Consumer Affairs, Human Resources, Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organisations on Friday, January 23.

Its president, Associate Professor Dr Richard Ng said with the new committee members, ICW would be the voice of Ipohites in raising issues that affect their city.

“It’s a tall order but our vision is to make Ipoh the most liveable city in Malaysia. We’ll help protect the rights of ratepayers to have a clean, safe and healthy environment. We’ll stand up for the rights to be provided with all amenities as stipulated in the by-laws of the Local Government Act 1976,” he told Ipoh Echo.

Richard Ng took over as the new ICW president for the period of 2015-2016 when he was elected during the EGM held last November. The mandate given comes with a huge responsibility. The committee members will continue with what was set out by the founding members of ICW in November 2002. The only difference is the approach used and the higher expectations of the people.

“We’ll use the three E’s approach – Engage, Explain, Educate. That’s to meet and talk to the people, explain to them what’s right and what’s wrong and to create awareness on doing their part to keep Ipoh clean and safe. Our target is to conduct our walkabout at all 22 zones in the city,” said Richard.

“We want our representatives from all of the city’s 22 zones to highlight issues plaguing their areas, true to the slogan, ‘Our City, Our Responsibility’. We can then bring these up to the relevant authorities for action,” he stressed.

“Most importantly, we want to build bridges with the Ipoh City Council. It is a challenge, as we are often perceived as an Opposition group.”

According to the academician, the biggest challenge for ICW would be to educate the people. “They always think that the cleanliness and the safety of the city are the responsibility of the local and state governments. If everyone had played their roles, Ipoh would be so much cleaner. Engaging the city councillors is another challenge since many are not willing to work with us,” he lamented.

“Non-governmental organisations are going to be the third force that can enhance their responsibility. They should start engaging with us rather than consider us as troublemakers.”

Between November 2014 and March this year, ICW has held six gotong-royong, anti-dengue campaigns and walkabouts to raise awareness on cleanliness. “We’ve visited Jelapang, Buntong, Lim Garden, Taman Merdeka and Tambun,” he said.

It has organised several public forums, including one on GST and stray animals. “We plan to have a forum on solid waste management in May where we’ll invite experts to talk,” he said.

Apart from the cleanliness issue, another concern of ICW is safety. There were several snatch thefts and robberies reported by residents before Chinese New Year.

“During the previous mayor’s time, he installed a number of CCTVs in the city. We want to know the number and whether they’re still functioning,” he said, adding that a city that was clean and safe would also help boost property prices.

“The number of street lights should also be increased, especially in areas that are frequented by drug addicts. Pedestrian walkways should be improved in the city as it would encourage people to walk and lead a healthy lifestyle,” he reasoned.

The society currently has some 50 members and is looking to add more professionals to the group. The members are very active on the ground identifying problems that need to be tackled by the relevant agencies.

Ipoh City Watch

Keeping Watch On Ipoh - Ipoh Echo

1 Feb 2015 By Fathol Zaman Bukhari

I was once asked what really started Ipoh City Watch (ICW). I had the answer but took a while to ponder on the likely reasons for the establishment of this non-governmental organisation.

The new millennium had just descended on Ipoh and talks were rife that the city’s boundary would be extended to include areas which were not under the city council’s jurisdiction.

Chemor, Gopeng, Jelapang and Meru were some of those considered. From an erstwhile 400-odd sq km the city would be expanded to its current 643 sq km to support a population in excess of 600,000.

The expansion was welcomed by the city’s business community, as it would provide better opportunities for business to flourish. However, residents were rather sceptical fearing a dilution in Ipoh City Council’s responsibilities with a larger area to cover.

Topping the list was cleanliness, as Ipoh in the 1950s right until the 1970s, was the cleanness town in the country. This distinction was attributable to the Seenivasagam brothers who took pride in making the state capital squeaky clean, both in looks and in governance, to the chagrin of other municipal councils who were in deep slumber, oblivious of the changing times.

Developments taking place in and around Ipoh seemed unstoppable, driven by an irresistible urge to spread. Some of which were never in the city’s 5-year structural plan, prompting residents to suspect a hidden agenda.

One very noticeable change taking place was on the vacant lot adjacent to Kinta City along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (formerly Jalan Tasek). Although the space was earmarked for a permanent structure, the construction of an entertainment outlet was puzzling, to say the least.

Bali Bali, a night club cum karaoke joint, took shape and it changed Ipoh Garden for good. The club stood where the De Garden shopping mall now stands. Ipoh City Council could not give a reasonable answer why approval was given for its construction. When the entertainment centre began operation in early 2001, people living in the vicinity protested as the din created caused them many sleepless nights.

A group of disgruntled residents, led by a lawyer, whose house was a stone’s throw away from the club, decided to take matters in their hands. A formal complaint was lodged with Ipoh City Council and a meeting with then Mayor Dato’ Taalat Hj Husain was arranged.

Lawyer Ernest Balasingam’s perseverance prevailed. The ‘seedy’ Bali Bali night club was demolished much to the delight of the public. Ernest had alluded to the council’s by-laws on entertainment outlets to strengthen his case.

The fact that the Council backed down after owning its mistake, spurred Ipohites to go beyond illegal buildings and noise pollution. They planned on something larger – a platform to be their sounding board against an insensitive Council prone to making contradictory decisions and statements at the behest of Ipohites.

That was how the idea behind the formation of Ipoh City Watch came into existence. A gathering of like-minded people was called and sometime in late November 2002, the first meeting took place at YMCA Ipoh hall. I was among the 11 who turned up. Bobby Yin was elected president while the rest made up the committee.  

We adopted a confrontational approach in dealing with problems affecting Ipohites. I remember making calls on the mayor, the council secretary and department heads to voice residents’ dissatisfactions. And when that did not work we tried drawing the attention of the Mentri Besar and the Executive Councillor for Local Government.

When that too did not work we sought the press for assistance. The Sun was kind enough to provide us with a weekly column to vent our frustrations. And the rest is history not worth mentioning. Over the years the fire in us dissipated leaving a void never to be filled until recently.

When the society was de-registered in 2013 by the Registrar of Societies for non-submission of its accounts, I thought that was the end of ICW. But circumstances were to prove me wrong. It was re-registered in April 2014 with a new team at the helm.

Today under a very dynamic president, Associate Professor Dr Richard Ng, Ipoh City Watch is set to make waves. The society was re-launched during a simple ceremony held at Kinta Riverfront Hotel, Ipoh on Friday, January 23.

Richard’s conciliatory style seems to work. His “3 Es” principle – Engage, Explain and Educate could be the panacea. At last count there are nearly 60 highly-motivated individuals in Richard’s WhatsApp group, “ICW Watchaa”. And that includes some notable names such as Gerakan’s former chief Chan Ko Youn, former mayor Roshidi Hashim, academician Victor Chew and even Opposition lawmakers, Howard Lee and Wong Kah Woh. My phone hasn’t stopped vibrating and squeaking ever since I was roped into the group.

Dogs Tortured To Death - Ipoh Echo

Cruelty to animals is a bane of our society. We often hear and see dogs and cats being flayed for no apparent reasons other than them being a “nuisance”. How bad could these animals be? They, just like us, are on Mother Earth for a reason. It is so heart-wrenching to see man’s best friends being beaten and mistreated.

Ipoh Echo received an email from a concerned Ipohite recently about two dogs being tortured to death. The incidents took place in Buntong and Tasek. We contacted Elaine, an animal activist, who was present at the scene where one of the dogs was beaten to death with a wooden stick.

According to Elaine, she and a friend were travelling around the industrial area of Tasek when they came across three puppies in front of a factory. They decided to take them to an animal shelter. 

“We came back the following day to look for the puppies but found that one was missing. After a brief search, we found it near a dead male dog. The puppy looked frightened. When we approached it, it kept on howling and yelping,” she said.

The dead dog was lying on its side with a stick beside it. Before leaving the scene, she took a few pictures and informed City Council of her finding. “I am shocked and angry at whoever was responsible for this barbaric act. Why take it out on an innocent animal? Don’t they have feelings?” she lamented.

The other case took place in Buntong where a canine was similarly killed for no rhyme or reason. The poor dog was splashed with acid and had suffered an agonising death.

Ipoh Echo urge members of the public to report to Ricky from the Ipoh Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) at 016 550 6915 or to Dr Ranjit of Noah’s Ark at 019 556 8292 should they come across animal-abuse cases in their neighbourhood.