Kuala Lumpur, 23 August 2017 – Phase 5 of River of Life Public Outreach Programme (ROLPOP) kicked off with about 500 resident-volunteers from Kampung Kasipillay and employees from Maybank taking part in river cleaning exercises and educational activities over the weekend. The event was made possible thanks to the partnership between Maybank Group Risk, Kampung Kasipillay community, Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) and Global Environment Centre (GEC).
Spearheaded by Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia, ROLPOP is targeted to educate stakeholders on improving water quality and reducing pollution. Through the river adoption programme, it is hoped that the sense of ownership and awareness among the community will be strengthened further. Ways in which the river can be conserved is through reducing water and waste footprints and monitoring the selected stretch of the Klang River within the project area.
Phase 5 of ROLPOP focuses on improving the river quality of Batu River. Some of the activities included cleaning the 800m stretch of the river and existing drainage system, river walk path beautification, upgrading of the river railing system as well as river education and monitoring activities. The Batu River Adoption Programme was initiated by Kawasan Rukun Tetangga (KRT) Kampung Kasipillay and hopes to improve the river water quality through regular river monitoring activities such as testing the river water quality using water testing kits and reporting any illegal, irregular and pollutive activity.
The event was officiated by Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Haji Md. Nasir Bin Md. Noh, Deputy Director General I of DID Malaysia who also participated in the clean-up activity. He said, “Efforts are on to improve the Klang River water quality through River of Life project by the Government, but participation by community and corporate is important to ensure success and sustainability of the project in the long run.”
Ir. Ng Kok Seng, Director of River Basin Management Division, DID Malaysia who was also present at the event had the following words to say: “More corporate should follow the footsteps of Maybank in their ROLPOP involvement or similar activities for the greater cause of taking a leap of faith in conserving and preserving our rivers.”
Dr John Lee Hin Hock of Maybank commented: “This is our 3rd year collaborating with GEC in support of the ROLPOP initiative. Group Risk decided on this Environmental Diversity initiative, which is one of the six CR pillars of Maybank, since 2014. The other five pillars are Education, Community Empowerment, Healthy Living, Arts & Culture and Disaster Relief. This initiative held today is in conjunction with Maybank Group Global CR Day, where the theme for 2017 is Empowering Communities with Solutions. This reflects well in our support to kick-start KRT Kampung Kasipillay river conservation awareness. We hope that Kampung Kasipillay community will take this opportunity to not only improve their knowledge on river conservation but also to lead and work with others to ensure success of this initiative.”
Faizal Parish, Director of GEC said, “One of the causes to such pollution is due to people’s attitude and lack of awareness on the importance of keeping the river clean. Public littering with packaging, food waste and other kinds of rubbish are one of the sources of Batu River’s deterioration.”
Lim Ching Wah, Chairman of KRT Kampung Kassipilay added, “Batu River was once clean enough for local folks to wash their clothes and even used for ablution. Sadly, today the river is badly polluted due to rubbish accumulation to the point that local people feels that there is no hope to be able to utilise the river like the old times.”
Also present at the river conservation exercise was Datuk Haji Mahadi bin Che Ngah, DBKL’s Executive Director (Project Management).
For further information on River of Life Public Outreach Programme Phase 5 and River of Life, please visit www.riveroflife.com.my.
