PM Says Government Looking At Ways Of Reducing Housing Cost
BUTTERWORTH, Jan 19 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Saturday the government is looking at the best way of reducing the building cost for houses in the country so that the people can own a house at a reasonable cost.
The Prime Minister said the matter had been discussed by the cabinet and among the methods that were felt appropriate was adopting the prefabrication system.
He said all the building components such as the windows, walls and doors could be mass-produced through the `Industrialised Building System' so that the construction cost would be cheaper.
"With the lower cost, the price of the house or rental can also be reduced and this will certainly not be a burden on the people," he said at the function to hand over house keys for the Pangsapuri Ampang Jajar Public Housing Project (PPR), owned by the Penang State government here.
Abdullah also suggested that house builders in future took into consideration the minimal use of water for toilet bowls to prevent wastage.
He said there should be two types of flushes for the toilet with differing water quantity to avoid excessive wastage when flushing the toilet bowl.
"We need not use up to a gallon of water merely to flush the toilet after urinating. This must be taken into consideration so that we can save on the use of water and water bill.
"The same goes for lighting. We can use bulbs which use little electricity but which are really bright. Some people say the bulb is costly but if they are produced in large quantities, the cost will be cheaper," he said.
The Prime Minister also called on the people to be thrifty in all aspects of life in preparation for the rising cost of goods and services.
He said that among the things that could be done by the people were to reduce the cost of buying food items by planting vegetables around their house and to rear fish in canvasses.
Abdullah also criticised the wastage of food at official functions where the left-overs were discarded whereas many people were in need of food.
The Ampang Jajar PPR project costing RM30.778 million was built on a four-hectare site belonging to the state government and developed by Wilayah Utara Sdn Bhd through funds from the Housing Foundation for the Hardcore Poor.
-- BERNAMA
