Dr Sim: An honour for Kuching to be recognised as world’s 11th cleanest city

KUCHING (Jan 22): The recent recognition of Kuching as the 11th cleanest city in the world by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir is due to the continuous efforts of the local councils as well as the people, said Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.

The Deputy Premier said Kuching has been for some time, known for being a clean city.

“It has been for a while that even people from Peninsular Malaysia including (former Health director general) Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican, who had many years ago, expressed his admiration for Kuching being so clean.

“This is the spirit that we have where everyone in Kuching come together to keep the city clean and we are constantly trying to find ways to improve ways on maintain the cleanliness,” he told reporters after officiating the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Light-Switching Ceremony of the Padungan White Cat here last night.

Dr Sim pointed out that the ‘Eco-Dragon’, a collaborative effort of MBKS and Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia (Kuching), is proof that everyday items can be repurposed and turn into art pieces.

“This ‘Eco-Dragon’ is a very beautiful piece of art and I want to thank Tzu Chi for being so thoughtful in creating something very meaningful and symbolic to usher in the Year of the Dragon out of recycled items,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kuching South mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said the construction of the ‘Eco-Dragon’ took one month and involved over 400 Tzu Chi members and more than 1,500 hours of work to create a dragon out of 2,000 CDs, 2,271 plastic bottles, 415 aluminium cans, and two pieces of electrical appliances (CCTV).

Measuring at 18.88 metres to serve as a commemoration of Kuching’s city status elevation on Aug 1, 1988, the ‘Eco-Dragon’ has also been listed in the Malaysia Book of Records as the longest dragon made using recycled materials.

He said it is an honour for Kuching to be recognised among the world’s cleanest cities and the achievement was no easy feat.

“I want to thank the people of Kuching for looking after our city together and let’s continue to keep our city clean so that this will attract people to come and visit us,” he said.

IQAir, which operates AirVisual, a real-time air quality information platform, had on Jan 21 ranked Kuching as the world’s 11th cleanest city with 18 air quality index (AQI) points. The city outranked Kuala Lumpur which was placed at 84th with an AQI of 88 points.

An AQI value of 0 to 50 represents good air quality with little or no health risk while 51 to 100 indicates an acceptable air quality but there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

Earlier, Dr Sim participated in the light-up ceremony of the Padungan White Cat which has been dressed up in an auspicious red costume in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration.

Joining the popular and iconic statue this year to usher in the Year of the Dragon is an ‘Eco-Dragon’ made of recycled items such as compact discs (CDs), plastic bottles, aluminium cans and electrical appliances.