Almost There Symptom

In conjunction with the Earth Day celebration, a public lecture entitled "Climate Change: It's relevant to the Local Authorities and Community" was held last Monday. One of the interesting point highlighted by the speaker is "almost there" symptom that failing the low carbon, sustainable development and green programmes. Almost there means something has been done but not completed yet and the unfinished job is becoming the contributing factor for failure or making the intended objectives unattainable. One of the example quoted was our National Administrative Centre, Putrajaya. In encouraging efficiency of green travelling and reducing the private vehicles trip, buses with NGV operated are installed and information on routing are displayed and updated at the bus stop. However, many commuters do not take the bus because it was reported that the buses do not come on time as scheduled. It left the commuters with no choice but travel with private vehicles. This further aggrieved the parking problem in Putrajaya as all buildings have been designed with park and ride concept in mind and hence very few parking lots are provided at the destinated place. As a result, illegal parking is becoming rampant all over the place. This is an example of almost there with little hiccup that dampen the objectives of a programme. Similarly, it is a symptom of almost there if we consume more treated piped water even though a rain water harvesting system was installed. It simply means that we want to conserve rain fall but cannot impact it into reducing our water consumption which should become ultimate aim. This symptom is related to either lack of thorough planning or attitude of the stakeholders. Planning is always failed by the efficiency in execution. While proposals can be very comprehensive to be outlined in the plan, it remains useless unless it is executed as planned schedule. For example, we spoke about TOD (Transit Oriented Development) in which higher intensity of development shall be given for those projects within the vicinity of public transportation hub. This concept was conceived with the assumption that the dwellers or workers there will commute with public transportation such as rail or buses and hence little trip generation using the road space will occur. Ideally this should be the bottom line for such concept to be successfully carried out. However, the concept will not be effectively operationalised unless other supporting factors are in place. For example, the rail line and its area of coverage meet the demand of the travellers. No point of me taking the train reaching the destinated station but have to spend another hour or to take a taxi ride to my work place. Secondly, the public transportation service must be affordable, convenient, efficient, safe, comfortable and connectable. For me, we can have tip top infrastructure and services but program still cannot work if the attitude of the stakeholders is remained third class or unchanged. For example, the nation wide recycling campaign failed to achieve its desired goals after a decade of implementation. We do not see the recycling practice becomes a value and culture amongst the community members. We only witness the primary school pupils bringing the recycable items to school because the school is making it a mandatory activity and for competition purpose. Once the students move up to secondary and college level, the interest of recycling diminishes rapidly. I presume it is a symptom of almost there, temporary or permanently.