(From left) Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) policy and development vice-secretary Dr Mary Wong Lai Lin, UN-Habitat advocacy, outreach and communications spokesman and chief Ana B. Moreno, Noh, his deputy Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique and Urbanice Malaysia chief executive Norliza Hashim at the New Urban Agenda event launch.

The urban document, he added, also outlined visions and global standards that would be the same ones used in most countries worldwide.

Five elements focused on are governance structure, spatial development, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and urban prosperity.

These aspects will apply to most government departments, ministries and local governments to study and implement respectively.

During the event, there was also a dialogue to introduce the urban agenda to representatives from various government departments and local councils.

“I hope that all involved will work together to understand the New Urban Agenda and implement it in stages locally to ensure urban sustainability.

“Our contributions in implementing this New Urban Agenda together might look small at every level but the end result will definitely be worth it and meaningful,” said Noh.

Urbanise Malaysia is tasked to introduce the New Urban Agenda to local councils nationwide, to help them understand and implement it locally.

To further raise awareness and discuss this New Urban Agenda further, Malaysia will host the upcoming 9th World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) from Feb 7 to Feb 13 next year.

The World Urban Forum, which is held every two years, is a non-legislative technical forum which has been convened by the United Nations Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) since 2002.

This forum aims to examine the most pressing issues faced by cities around the world like rapid urbanisation and its impact on cities, communities, the economy, climate change and policies.

It is open to all and will be participated by worldwide experts, related United Nations organisations, international agencies, community-based organisations, academics and non-governmental organisations.

To register for the World Urban Forum and for more details, visit www.wuf9.org.

Selangor on right track

Local authorities in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam already have plans and practices for a more sustainable future.

Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) for example have numerous go-green initiatives since a few years back.

One of it is the green incentives where residents with green features in their homes will receive a rebate on their annual assessment taxes totalling to either 100% off their bill or RM500, whichever is lower.

MBPJ was also the first local council to introduce free city bus to encourage the use of public transport in an effort to reduce carbon emission and have more connectivity to main public transport hubs.

There are now two electric free buses used, with more to come in the future.

MBPJ has also been giving out free orange rubbish bins since the end of 2016 to all homes in the city to standardise and make rubbish collection more efficient as well as to curb littering and illegal dumping.

“In fact some of our contractors also do waste separation and some non-governmental organisations do this in a bigger scale like the Tzu Chi recycling centre in SS3,” said councillor Sean Oon.

While this is a good effort and in line with MBPJ’s goal of a sustainable city, sometimes waste separation by many different parties may also pose as a problem when done at unsuitable sites.

However, there are plans in place to tackle the issue like giving out two separate bins for example, one for recycling and another for other domestic waste.

The city council also plans to reduce waste in the city by half with its Smart Waste Solution Lab in SS2 where waste is recycled into compost among other things.

To date, about 600 tonnes of waste collected from the SS2 market and hawker stalls are being disposed of in a day with 49% comprising organic waste that can be recycled.

Next year, another waste solution lab and recycling centre would be set up in SS8 where the former Giant supermarket used to be.

There are also plans to build more compost machines at other markets or hawker centres citywide.

“I think it is also important that MBPJ engages the community to join in on all these efforts without which it will be a real challenge to get meaningful results,” he said.

Petaling Jaya Utara MCA chairman Tan Gim Tuan said a sustainable city can only be achieved if views and needs of residents and stakeholders are taken into account.

He added that developments have to be planned catering to residents’ interest rather than the developer’s to achieve a sustainable city.

For example, the zoning of land in the local plans must be properly studied and the density of land must be done based on the surrounding areas.

“What I see now especially at older areas in the city, high rise developments are mushrooming and there are often very little setbacks in the area.

“And instead of chopping down trees everywhere all green lungs must be preserved,” he said adding that planting two new trees to replace an old big tree is not the same.

Over in Subang Jaya, there are also numerous efforts in place set towards a sustainable town, not only by the local council but also by residents and property developer Sunway Bhd.

It has previously been reported that Sunway recycles lake water at Sunway South Quay and Sunway Lagoon and can collect 8.5 milliion litres per day.

There are also plans in place to treat water to serve commercial buildings in Sunway City, which will be safe for cooking and drinking.

Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh said rainwater harvesting was done at neighbourhood parks.

“The rainwater harvesting system is placed at the gazebo’s in parks and the collected water is used to water residents’ gardens,” she said.

Also, there are bicycle lanes, Selangorku free shuttle buses, and even an elevated bus service around the major town to reduce cars on the road.

“We also have the owl project to eradicate rats but it is still too early to tell,” she said, adding that lights in Subang Jaya were also energy efficient LED ones installed by the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ).

In Shah Alam, plans for a sustainable city is based on five key points – raising awareness on environmental issues, strengthen neighbourhood bonds, improvising solid waste management system, safe and barrier free, and developing a dynamic and environmental urban economy,

Among programmes in place are the Back Alley Greening Initiative and the Green Neighbourhood Award to encourage communities to have a clean, green and innovative neighbourhood.

Another is the Green Earth Project started in 2010 and is targeted at 48 primary schools to educate students about environmental issues.

Like Petaling Jaya, they also have a food separation project involving 4,849 premises that started in October 2015 to reduce waste sent to landfills.

“We managed to collect about 141,493kg worth of recycling materials between 2015 and 2016,” said MBSA councillor Simon Siow.

There are also seven compost machines located citywide mostly at hawker centres to educate hawkers about waste separation and recycling organic food waste.

Similar to MBPJ and MPSJ, the Shah Alam City Council also bans the use of polystyrene and plastic containers.

“We have plenty of ideas on how to move towards a sustainable city but some ideas have to be studied further due to problems of security and foreign labour.

“Hopefully the police can implement more awareness programmes on how to prevent crime and install more CCTVs to monitor crime,” he said.