Sustainable Development for Malaysia's cities

My Open Letter to Tengku Adnan:

Menteri  Wilayah Persekutuan Malaysia

Kementerian Wilayah Persekutuan dan Kesejahteraan Bandar,

Aras G-7, Blok 2, Menara Seri Wilayah, Presint 2,

62100 Putrajaya.

                                                                                                                        8^th July 2014

Dear Y.A.B. Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor,

SUGGEST TRANSFORMATION OF KUALA LUMPUR INTO GREENCITY.

Refer to the matter above, I would like to propose integration of sustainable development principles into the on-going Kuala Lumpur transformation.

The adverse impacts of ever increasing population (32.4 million, year 2020) along with demand for clean water, food, shelter, connectivity& power, would further attributed from expansive inflation, shrinking on purchasing power while further pulling up our GINI index (46.2%, year 2009), if our productivity still can’t cope and so does the meridian salary correlative with it. Inequality of economy distribution, social disturbance and further environmental deterioration ensued is foreseeable to drag us behind time.

With expected 80% of population live in the city by year 2015, we need a sustainable systems to manage all the parameters aforementioned to create a livable& sustainable city and it has to be a bottom-up approach by first curbing urban poverty. Sustainable means enable self-reliance, a holistic system instead of merely depend on feeding by government or NGO.

Sustainable development stand on environment, social& economy. Green Building Index (GBI) provide standard of measurement more toward the environment aspect which is in dearth of government effort in building infrastructure to make our city parallel with world class GreenCity such as Masdar of Abu Dhabi, Stockholm of Sweden and Warsaw of Poland. The synergy between the two is integration of sustainable development into city’s soul with urban poor as pollinators, working as city farmers, recycle crews and even green builders. Not only it embracing sustainable use of land available in the city but also boost sector in housing, tourism& agriculture at the same time eradicate homelessness& urban poverty.

Quality education being the key open doors to more& better job opportunity but city planning has its role in providing efficient public connectivity and Satellite Township. Traffic congestion (affect >40% urbanites) slashes productivity at the same time cause pollution to environment, following a strings of repercussions such as health problems and economy performances, should be given priority in action.

Currently, 94% of electricity generation fuel mix are from heavily subsidized fossil fuel and with 250kwh/m²/yr of average Building Energy Index (BEI), the increasing cost is going to be hurt our economy (Fuel subsidy is 8.9% of total government expenditure-3.65% of GDP, year 2010). Besides, our recklessly consumption on water too (212 L/person/day), also adding salt to wound, especially project like channeling water from Pahang to Selangor is not a sustainable solution compare to water reclamation, so does its environment& economy sense in long-term. All these can be lightened by introduce sustainable development into our city.