KUANTAN – Post-flood waste cleanup in Pahang’s worst-affected districts will take one to two weeks, said state Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) director Sharudin Hamid.
He said the rapid and sudden rise of floodwaters had caused more damage than in the previous year, such as the one that occurred in Maran, which saw people throwing away a lot of furniture damaged in the flood.
“SWCorp is collaborating with concessionaire Alam Flora Sdn Bhd and the local authorities for the post-flood cleanup, and we hope the public can assist by collecting flood waste at locations easily accessible for trucks.
“This is also to make it easier for our workers to find the piles of rubbish, as our lorries are unable to reach the residents’ houses due to the narrow roads in some villages,” he said here today.
Sharudin said that as of now, cleanup had started in several post-flood areas including Bentong, Maran, Raub, and Kuantan, involving 161 workers and over 27 assets, including lorries and heavy machinery.
He said the ongoing floods also caused two landfills to be inaccessible, namely in Belenggu, Temerloh, and Jengka 10, Maran.
Sharudin said that the district councils have provided temporary garbage collection centres that will be cleaned up once the two landfills resume operations.
“We also hope the public will be patient if rubbish collection is delayed, because some of our staff are also flood victims, which has forced us to rearrange our daily work tasks, depending on the number of workers available.
“However, we are trying to ensure that there is no backlog as it can lead to other problems, forcing garbage collection and clean-up work to be done at night,” he said.
Sharudin said garbage would be collected at the flood relief centres twice a day to avoid it from piling up, as the flood victims are receiving meals in packages due to the Covid-19 pandemic. – Bernama, January 8, 2021
