KPKT mulls studying risks posed by recreational areas
LUMUT: The Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) will consider conducting studies on the categories and levels of danger of recreational areas to visitors in the country.
Its minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the studies were specifically for water activities, forest and mountain areas which posed certain risks to visitors, as a precautionary measure.
"Perhaps there is a need to have a guideline before they enter a certain area, such as making it mandatory to get approval from the local authority and the police so that they can be monitored," she said.
She was speaking at a press conference after a working visit to the state Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) at the Seri Manjung Fire and Rescue Station here today.
She was asked to comment on the need to categorise risky recreational areas following the (ongoing) incident of 12 boys and a school football coach who were trapped in a cave due to floods in Thailand.
Also present were JBPM director-general Mohammad Hamdan Wahid and Perak JBPM Director Datuk Yahaya Madis.
According to Zuraida, Perak had a large number of caves as well as water activities that attracted visitors in the state which needed to be addressed especially in terms of safety.
"For example, teachers in Pengkalan Hulu, use guidelines from JBPM to assist them, so if anything happens (in case of emergency) it can quickly be managed," she said.
In a separate development, Zuraida called on women to participate in JBPM to fill the role of women in the department which was seen as important especially in communicating with victims during accidents and disasters.
She said so far there were 600 female firefighters, five per cent of the 14,000 firemen nationwide.
"Women must be encouraged to venture into this field and this should be done via exposures on the scope of work as well as career (in JBPM) counsellings at the school level.
"We expect at least 30% of the personnel in JBPM to comprise of women in the future in accordance with the international standard," she said. — Bernama