KOTA KINABALU:
City Hall is targeting about 10,000 people to join the “Exercise While Campaigning” event to make the City clean f r o m rubbish on May 3. Its Director General, Datuk Dr Chua Kim Hing, said that the program is the highlight of the on-going big scale anti-littering campaign towards making Kota Kinabalu a litter-free City. “On that day, we do exercise by collecting rubbish and at the same time doing campaign to stop throwing of rubbish,” he said, adding the event would also be put in the Malaysia Book of Records. Apart from the City areas, Chua said several villages and smaller towns like Tanjung Aru and Foh Sang would also be involved. “I hope individuals, students, State and Federal Government staff as well as City Friends will be joining this big event to make the City free of rubbish,” Chua said when met at Lintasan Deasoka where an anti-litterbug operation and stop smoking campaign were held. To date, Chua said more than 10,000 people have registered as City Friends. “We are still recruiting more people to become City Friends,” he said. However, he was upset with the attitude of some of the City Friends who littered the City. “Maybe they do not know their actual role as City Friends,” he said. Explaining on how to become a City Friend, Chua said firstly the person must promise not to throw rubbish anywhere. “Secondly, they must advise close friends and relatives not to litter. The third step is they must tick off and educate litterbugs not to throw rubbish,” he said. The fourth step is joining the City Hall’s anti-litterbug operation and lastly practise ‘Life’ - the acronym for ‘Litter free event’. Chua said that these are the actual roles of City Friends. “After the registration, they will be given a City Friend card,” he added. Meanwhile, he urged all shop operators in the City to place dustbins under their tables to make their shops clean. “I notice that people used to throw tissues onto the floor after cleaning their tables. By placing these dustbins, rubbish can be thrown into them,” he said. He also suggested shop operators put up a notice to remind customers to throw rubbish into the right place. Chua added they would also cooperate with the Tourism Ministry to plan and organise more cleanliness programs to make the State clean.
