Millions spent to clean up rubbish which cause clogging

On reading this report, >Millions spent to clean up rubbish which cause clogging I have to agree wholeheartedly with what PJ City Council public relations officer Zainon Zakaria said that "about RM1mil was spent in cleaning up drains as well as repairing broken ones last year. She added that the city council had to deal with commercial waste, such as cooking oil, which was dumped into the drains. People must change their habits. If not, no matter how much cleaning up we do, the problem will continue,.."

I fear she is right in saying that no matter how much cleaning the Councils continue to do, the problem will persist, as long as people's attitudes remain. I also fear that the problem of rubbish clogging our drains and rivers will increase tremendously in spite of super efforts made by these local authorities, as our nation continues to depend significantly on "imported" labour for our basic cleaning needs.

For cost and availability reasons, the foreign workers all come from depressed countries in the regions around us, and due to extensive poverty, the citizens and the governments there do not have the time and resource to practise and maintain a culture of keeping the environment and the neighbourhood clean and hygienic. In certain countries that we 'extract' our labour from, it is well known that toilets are 'where and when the need arises' and in those areas, often drains do not even exist. Garbage bins? Who needs them!

Fast forward to Malaysia, where we have {in spite of difficulties with the Indonesian Govt relating to the 'import' of maids}, close to 5 million foreign workers performing basically cleaning services in homes, restaurants, factories, offices, plantations, construction sites, old folks nursing homes, and rubbish collectors, and who have indifferent ideas to the disposal of rubbish, what can you expect from such a workforce? And if they observe that their employers also have dirty habits and attitudes, how can we hope to keep our streets and drains clean and unclogged?

We have a huge problem on our hands, and continuous Govt corruption and 'tidakapathy' will only see it getting worse.