KUCHING: Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) is planning to turn areas under its jurisdiction into not only child-friendly but also ageing society-friendly spaces.
DBKU mayor Hilmy Othman said although currently it is only mandatory for buildings to provide features to cater to the disabled, it is within their planning to extend features to cater to the ageing society as well.
“Even though we are experiencing such a great change and development of infrastructure and so on, it would be good if we also emphasise initiatives to cater to the ageing society and also to the child-friendly society.
“We could provide the features for the ageing society that suit them and facilities that are safe for them while also not neglecting the disabled and children.”
Hilmy said this during an interview with New Sarawak Tribune at the DBKU headquarters here on Monday (Mar 11).
He expressed his hopes that the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) along with the academia would look into the structures and identify features that can be incorporated into this initiative.
“This involves a very technical method and sometimes those in the building industry would look past such features.
“Therefore, I hope that we can work together with relevant agencies or institutes to look into this so that we can immediately implement the initiatives.”
Following this, Hilmy stated as of now, the said initiative cannot be included in the bylaws of DBKU.
“This is because we need to see the practicality of it first and whether it can be implemented or not.
“If we were to work on it at our end alone, it would be impossible for us and not enforceable… We need to work along with others because now is high time for us to be firm on emphasising the areas to be ageing society-friendly.”
