(only available in English version)

Rodziah planting the Mesua ferrea tree (locally known as penaga lilin) at the opening ceremony of Arboretum and Landscaping Course at Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu campus as Dr Zamri (right) and others look on.

BINTULU: The town beautification by the Landscape Division of Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) is an easy task, but the hardest part is to instil civic values in the public.

BDA general manager Rodziah Morshidi admitted that changing people’s attitude was not an easy task, but added that it was not impossible if there were support and cooperation from the community. She cited vandalism as one of the major issues faced by any local authority in the state and Bintulu was among the divisions that had recorded the most cases involving damage on public facilities.

She said this when officiating at the opening of Arboretum and Landscaping Course at Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus (UPMKB) yesterday, which was attended by over 70 participants from relevant agencies.

“BDA’s roles are expanding, but there are limitations and challenges since we are covering bigger areas in the aspect of landscaping, with the requirement of 30 per cent of the development area must be preserved as green area and Bintulu is currently experiencing rapid growth,” she pointed out.

She reiterated that community engagement with the local authority was vital to achieve sustainable development towards making Bintulu a better place to stay and a friendly city by 2020.

However, she expressed concern over the attitude of certain sections of the public who took healthy environment for granted by throwing rubbish indiscriminately.

“Every time when there are flash floods affecting several areas, BDA will be blamed for the disaster which is unfair for my workers,” she said, referring to several cases of drain blockage which affected residential areas, but when inspected by her workers they were actually caused by a discarded car seat and other debris thrown by some irresponsible residents.

She said no matter how much funds and efforts were to be spent on landscaping and beautification of the town, they would not be successful if the people’s attitude remained unchanged.

Rodziah regretted that some people simply criticised BDA staff and their service delivery on social media without knowing the actual causes of problems.

She referred to the night market where most of the stall operators and traders did not make any effort at all to clean up their respective areas.

“They just left their areas dirty. That is the place where they earn their living and they don’t even care about the hygiene of the place,” she said.

As such, she reminded that preserving the environment should start with the community.

She added that promoting public awareness and public partnership was a bigger battle for BDA; thus she hoped that the community would give their full support and cooperation.

“Since taking over the management in BDA, I can see improvements along the way, but we still need public cooperation.

“BDA will continue its efforts to beautify the town, the parks and create green network and together we make Bintulu better — it is an impossible feat to do this alone,” said Rodziah, while welcoming any good ideas from the public with open arms.

Meanwhile, UPMKB Students Affairs deputy dean Dr Zamri Rosli said the two-day course organised by UPMKB was mainly to give exposure to the participants on the management and maintenance of arboretum and landscaping, including various techniques in the field.

“The research and development conducted by UPM on agricultural related studies also need to be transferred down to the community and this is an exclusive opportunity for the participants,” he said. The course was conducted by three speakers— Dr Mohammad Azani Alias from UPM Serdang, Danial A Hasan from Laman TBG Sdn Bhd and Abdul Rahim Rashid from UPM Serdang.