BY JAROD LIM

Volunteers taking the necessary items to clean Brickfields.

ABOUT 200 people from various agencies and non-governmental organisations came together to clean up Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, during a gotong-royong programme in the area.

The Brickfields cleanliness project titled “Let’s Clean-Up, Green-Up and Be Seen” was organised by YMCA Kuala Lumpur in collaboration with Brickfields Sathya Sai Baba Centre, DBKL Local Agenda 21 (LA21), Brickfields Rukun Tetangga, SWCorp Sdn Bhd, Alam Flora Sdn Bhd and the police.

YMCA programme secretary Stefan D. Low said the clean-up was aimed at making Brickfields a cleaner place.

“We also want to spread awareness and engage the public on keeping the city clean.

“This is the first time we are doing this and the feedback from the public is good.

“We plan to organise more talks and seminars to engage youths on the cleanliness of the city,” he said.

The volunteers gathered as early as 8am and started cleaning the streets, road sides and back lanes.

Workers who came on Alam Flora trucks were also seen cleaning the drains while DBKL Health Department officers checked on the cleanliness of food operators’ premises.

Low said one of the main concerns in Brickfields was food operators who disposed of food waste into the drains.

“There should be more enforcement towards food operators who do not have grease traps and compounds must be issued to those who simply throw food waste into the drains,” he said, adding that he planned to make this a yearly event.

LA21 Kuala Lumpur secretariat Abdul Ghani Mohamed said they wanted to apply the same concept of the mass gotong-royong in Bukit Bintang to Brickfields.

“We hope more corporations and companies in Brickfields will join this event in the future,” he said.