Monday, May 23, 2011

Keeping Johor Bahru Clean

JB City Councillor Slams SWM For Inefficiencies 
by Steven Chen on 20 May, 2011

SWM Environment Sdn. Bhd. (SWM) was slammed for failing to carry out its solid waste collection contractual obligations satisfactorily.
Johor Bahru city councillor, Yahya Jaafar ticked off SWM for not performing its cleaning and solid waste
collection as scheduled.

He quoted an incident in Majidee zone area where the wastes in that area were left piling up for two weeks at one time.
Residents in the said area and other areas within the city are certainly not happy and satisfied with the state of affairs of uncollected rubbish and waste incidences where they are forced to put up with the unpleasant sight and the nauseating stench.
Some residents have even resorted to open burning their wastes when the stench get unbearable.
Maimunah Muda, 58, who has been staying in the Kampong Melayu Majidee over the last 23 years said that wastes in her area are collected once in every five days instead of alternate day.
“It has been like that for the last two months and making our surroundings filthy and smelly”, she added.
Another resident, Fatimah Hussein, 60, said that she has to resort to burning the wastes as the waste bin has overflowed and waste stench gets unbearable .
Councillor Yahya said, he had reports stating that SWM rubbish trucks are having difficulties obtaining PUSPAKOM road worthiness certifications where eight out of ten trucks sent for inspections failed the tests.
He urged the state government to take necessary to resolve the problem and also look into the options of appointing more than one concessionaire in managing the city cleaning and solid waste collection services.
Meanwhile, SWM corporate communication officer, Shahrul Amir Abdul Rahman said that SWM did received complaints of uncollected solid wastes from residents in Kampong Melayu Majidee three days ago.
He admitted that fact that at times SWM do encounter problems of waste dump trucks breaking down but nonetheless SWM has always managed to send back-up trucks and teams to cover the affected areas.
“The public can lodge a complaint with SWM if the wastes in their area are not collected after three days”. he said when contacted by reporter.

Footnotes:
SWM ENVIRONMENT SDN. BHD. (SWM), formerly known as Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd was established in line with the Malaysian Government’s decision on the National Privatization of Solid Waste Management.
It was subsequently awarded the task of managing the storage, collection, transfer, haulage, intermediate processing and disposal of solid waste in the Southern Region of Peninsular Malaysia by the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department on December 21, 1995.
In April 1996, SWM was directed by the Government of Malaysia to take over the solid waste management and public cleansing services from all Local Authorities within the SWM concession area (Johor, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan) on an interim basis.
SWM had progressively since 1997 taken over the management of solid waste and public cleansing from all the Local Authorities within its concession area.
It is a transition toward the implementation of the full privatization.
The concession will cover a period of 20 years and serve a population of 4 million people. 

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Johor Bahru’s Rubbish Collection Controversy 
by Steven Chen on 20 Mar, 2011



SWM Environment
SWM Environment (SWM) Sdn Bhd has denied that its representative has asked shop owners in Taman Megah Ria, Masai, to pay RM150 for rubbish collection. This was conveyed by its head of communications, Sharul Amir Abdul Rahman, at a press conference here yesterday.
SWM is the main contractor appointed by the state government to manage solid waste collection and disposal in Johor.
Sharul said that the company immediately investigated the allegation after  it was reported in the media and found that the shop owners did not furnish proof of payment being made.
He added that there is no charge for any solid waste collection service provided by SWM provided that additional services are officially requested for, and made to any waste collection company registered and approved by the local authority.
According to procedure, all such payments must be acknowledged in the company’s official receipt or on an official letterhead. Sharul said that SWM will not hesitate to take strong action against of the company’s contractors who flout the rules.
SWM will also be discussing with the Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) about payments for additional waste collection and disposal services, especially in commercial and industrial areas, as this involves the local council by-laws.
He also commented that the local council can fine any commercial premises that do not provide adequate solid waste bins.
Members of the public can call SWM hotline 1-800-222-800 or  go to swmresponz.swmsb.com for more information.  

Both Sources: Komuniti Kini 

2 comments:

YSC said...

I, Mr.Victor Chan as 1 of the a cafe owner at Jln Austin Height 3/1, Tmn Mount Austin.There are about 20 cafe/restuarant along this stretch of road,during the Hari Raya holiday,started from 29 Aug to 4th Sep ,rubbish was not clear for 7 days,solid waste has piled up more the 10 trash bags for each cafe, some even have about 20 bags. Full of flies flying around and the worse this was that the foul smell like dead bodies blows by the wind was really unbareable. 2 of my kitchen worker was felt sick and vomitted after long day inhale the foul smell. The whole kitchen is smelly and feel sick. Bisiness is effected by the foul smell blows into the dinning hall. I really feel angry but nothing I can do.No one take action about this seriously. As I know, the council will impose summon to cafe owner if they found dirty, untidiness in our kitchen. Can we sumon council/ SWM for not collecting the solid waste for 7 days ? I have launch a complain at MPJB in JB with a report on 5th Sep,and even call SWM regarding this issue. I will see if SWM clear it by today , if not as a last resort, I will launch a complain to the Health department and put them in the new papper. Since the council knew that SWM could not perform their duties and many complain was received, but why council still continues award the contract to them and no action has been taken ? Is it the way of the management of a ISO standard organizaton (MBJB) ?? With this can we achieve "WAWASAN 2020" being a 1st world country ??

Container Rental NYC said...

It is disturbing to think that waste can build up around towns and let the city officials pretend like it doesn't even exist. For them its just part of the town that they make money off of, anyway. Its sad.

-Land Source Container Service, Inc.