KOTA KINABALU: Villagers and government personnel combined to hold a gotong-royong to cut trees that posed a safety risk to the public at a village but busy road in Sabah’s east coast Sandakan district.
The effort saw some 40 people comprising villagers and personnel from utility company Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and Telekom Malaysia working together at Jalan Cecily from 8am to 4pm on Sunday (Sept 8).
Karamunting assemblyman Datuk George Hiew Vun initiated the drive amid incidents of falling trees in the country, some of which ended in tragedy.
“We managed to cut down more than 10 big trees that potentially posed a risk to people,” he said, when contacted.
“Well done and thank you to all those involved in making this effort a success which has made Jalan Cecily safer now.
“I appreciate the cooperation from everyone especially the villagers as they are also aware that safety and the well-being of their area is a shared responsibility,” he added.
According to Hiew, several big trees were uprooted at nearby Jalan Yap Syn Kee previously and this has caused damage to telecommunication lines besides obstructing the traffic.
Hiew (white shirt) checking the gotong-royong effots at Jalan Cecily.
While it was fortunate that the incident did not damage any houses or hurt anyone, he said, such occurrences must be prevented.
“Hence, this is why we have conducted large-scale tree-cutting exercises in several locations in the Karamunting constituency after receiving good feedback from the local communities.
“The active participation of the residents in the gotong-royong not only improves the sense of community but also helps my Karamunting task force team to identify and resolve more issues of trees posing safety risks,” he said.
Hiew said they held two tree-cutting initiatives at main roads in Sandakan last year, adding there are plans to do similar before the end of this year.
He was happy to note that, since the inception of the task force last year, residents have begun to realise and appreciate its functions.
“They are using the team as a hotline to report on various other issues besides uprooted trees such as malfunctioning streetlights, landslides, damaged pipelines and fallen electricity poles, among others.
“After getting the complaints, our team will immediately channel them to the relevant government departments and agencies for the next course of action and follow-up on the complaints,” he said.
As such, Hiew urged residents to continue to reach out to the task force, saying they would do their best to help the people find solutions to their issues, especially those that involved questions over safety.
