Cleaning staff worked tirelessly to fulfill their responsibility in maintaining the town’s hygiene.
For those in Ipoh City Council (MBI), their shift starts at 6.45am and ends only at 4pm.
MBI’s responsibilities are sweeping and collecting trash, and cleaning illegal dumping grounds around the roughly 643-kilometre square foot wide Ipoh.
For cleaning drains, mowing grasses and non-rubbish related matters, a private company is appointed instead.
MBI currently has around 600 cleaning staff under the council’s Town Planning Department, Environmental Health Department and its Town Services Division.
According to the deputy health director of the Town Planning Department, S. Manisegaran, cleaning operations are done by zones with 18 staff, including the supervisor, which are then further split into small groups of two.
“Since cleaning operations are done daily, the staff do not observe holidays,” Manisegaran said. “Workers are given days off in sequence but cleaning operations go on as usual.
“As part of the community, we would love our neighbourhoods to be kept clean and maintained,” he further stated. “This is exactly what is done by cleaning staff.”
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, cleaning operations went on.
For Salwan Najumut, a staff member, even though he has to face heaps of trash everyday, he treats it as a responsibility to the society.
“During Hari Raya Aidilfitri for instance, I had to leave my family at home for work because we are trusted to pick up the rubbish and clean up the surroundings,” he lamented, hoping for the community’s cooperation in not littering anywhere as they please, especially at prohibited premises.
Darma Kanu, a fellow cleaner, shared some of the things that should not be simply discarded, such as animal remains.
“There are some citizens that purposely put out trash whenever we (cleaners) are present sweeping the surrounding,” he bemoaned. “Some even gave dissatisfactory responses when they are lectured against simply throwing the trash.
“Despite that, we always put everything down to experience and get on with our jobs,” Darma expressed.
Rosli Mansor
