Mantanani island seeks financial support to keep trash, pollution at bay

 By Olivia Miwil - July 19, 2021 @ 5:28pm

On average, Reef check Malaysia spends between RM6,000 and 8,000 each month to maintain the waste management programme off Mantanani island. - Pic by Reef Check Malaysia.

KOTA BELUD: A tourist destination island here has managed to prevent 35.6 tonnes of rubbish from polluting its surroundings.

The idyllic Mantanani islands are kept clean from the trash produced by the villagers from January till June this year due to the waste management system by Reef Check Malaysia (RCM).

For the people living on the islands here, effective waste management used to be out of the question, which led to dumping rubbish into the sea, burying underground, or open burning.

In 2018, the non-governmental organisation established a Waste Management Improvement Programme for the Mantanani Island community which included teaching them waste segregation.

The programme also hired a waste collection team among the locals who would go to each house and transport the waste to a temporary waste segregation centre for data recording, sorting, and storage.

Organic materials will be fed to cattle on the island; non-organic waste is sent off the island to a landfill on the mainland; and, plastic bottles are sent to the NGO's Mantanani Plastic Recycling Centre (MPRC) on the island.

RCM programme manager Adzmin Fatta said it was a major achievement whereby 10 workers and 905 participants managed to collect and prevent 35,561.9kg of waste from entering the ocean, or being burned or buried.

However, as RCM is spending between RM6,000 and RM8,000 each month to maintain the programme, they need significant financial support.

"We have to consider the costs that go into managing a system such as this – maintenance of buildings and equipment; labour costs, which is also a source of income for local islanders; transportation of waste to the mainland for disposal.

"To put this into perspective, in January this year, the team sent 753kg of plastic bottles to a recycling facility in Kota Kinabalu and received RM150.60 from the sale of the recyclables.

"But it costs RM120 for land transportation and RM900 for boat transportation alone, not including labour costs," said Adzmin who is also the leader of Cintai Mantanani, a programme designed to enhance the resilience of both the island's community and coral reefs.

RCM general manager Julian Hyde said collaboration between government agencies, tour operators and the local community is crucial to ensure the waste management system is successful in the long term.

"If a small NGO like Reef Check Malaysia, together with the local community, can do it, it shows that this approach works and can be replicated on other islands," Hyde added.

The programme started in 2018 with funding from Yayasan Hasanah and, later, the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP).

Currently, the Coca-Cola Foundation is supporting the waste management programme, providing funding until October this year.

RCM is also working with Kota Belud District Council and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to secure long-term financial support, as well as additional equipment, for the waste management programme.