Monday, June 23, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur Draft City Plan 2020 makes no reference to the environment and makes no provision for green lungs and proper amenities in the city says an environmentalist.
The plan is too narrow in its focus and many important issues are looked at on a piecemeal basis, he said.
"The environment should be the sole platform of any plan," said Gurmit Singh, chairman of Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) at the public forum on the future of Kuala Lumpur.
He said City Hall's vision of making Kuala Lumpur a world class city does not address certain prerequisites.
"A developed city is an international commercial and financial centre with an efficient and equitable city structure.
"By this I mean we should have good quality air and water and properly managed amenities, which in end will create a distinctive city identity administered by an efficient and effective government," he said.
Gurmit said Kuala Lumpur could only attain this if the Klang River is not polluted, all drains, roads and empty spaces are not cluttered with rubbish, traffic jams do not prevail and public transport is improved.
"Green lungs are shrinking and undispersed in the plan," he said, questioning whether the figure of 1.09 hectares of space per 1,000 people still holds true today when there is an urgent need for a multitude of well spread out mini-parks.
He said the environment is only looked on as a landscape issue, and matters like pollution and the increase in solid waste are not properly addressed
"One of the main issues here is that maintenance is ignored and the residents have to pay many environmental and economic prices of absent planning on comprehensive preventive maintenance," he said.
Public health and sanitation issues, such as bad drains and unhygienic food are good examples of this, he said.
He urged City Hall to look into minimising the ecological footprint; eliminating all forms of wastage; optimising energy efficiencies and switch to recycled materials that are efficient; and providing clean and affordable transport.
"The draft plan is very narrow in its outlook," he said.
City Hall now needs to restudy the environmental effects in relation to on housing and transport and heed the objections of the public, he said.
The plan is too narrow in its focus and many important issues are looked at on a piecemeal basis, he said.
"The environment should be the sole platform of any plan," said Gurmit Singh, chairman of Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) at the public forum on the future of Kuala Lumpur.
He said City Hall's vision of making Kuala Lumpur a world class city does not address certain prerequisites.
"A developed city is an international commercial and financial centre with an efficient and equitable city structure.
"By this I mean we should have good quality air and water and properly managed amenities, which in end will create a distinctive city identity administered by an efficient and effective government," he said.
Gurmit said Kuala Lumpur could only attain this if the Klang River is not polluted, all drains, roads and empty spaces are not cluttered with rubbish, traffic jams do not prevail and public transport is improved.
"Green lungs are shrinking and undispersed in the plan," he said, questioning whether the figure of 1.09 hectares of space per 1,000 people still holds true today when there is an urgent need for a multitude of well spread out mini-parks.
He said the environment is only looked on as a landscape issue, and matters like pollution and the increase in solid waste are not properly addressed
"One of the main issues here is that maintenance is ignored and the residents have to pay many environmental and economic prices of absent planning on comprehensive preventive maintenance," he said.
Public health and sanitation issues, such as bad drains and unhygienic food are good examples of this, he said.
He urged City Hall to look into minimising the ecological footprint; eliminating all forms of wastage; optimising energy efficiencies and switch to recycled materials that are efficient; and providing clean and affordable transport.
"The draft plan is very narrow in its outlook," he said.
City Hall now needs to restudy the environmental effects in relation to on housing and transport and heed the objections of the public, he said.
