4,000kg of rubbish collected in Semporna clean-up
KOTA KINABALU: The Tun Sakaran Marine Park Ocean and Beach Cleanup held on Tuesday in Semporna was a tremendous success.
Co-hosted by 32 Marine and Sabah Parks, the event introduced the hashtag #SempornaReborn, to indicate the rebirth of Semporna – away from trash, away from negative social media.
There were over 30 operators participating, with 440 participants involved. A total of 4,032kg (four tonnes) of rubbish was removed from the ocean and beaches of Sibuan, Mantabuan, and Bohey Dulang in Tun Sakaran Marine Park.
Other than the Tourism stakeholders, this event was also supported by the District Office of Semporna, Marine Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces.
The top three operators collecting the most trash were Scuba Junkies at 547kg, Armada Scuba at 321kg, and Amir Scuba at 300kg respectively.
According to Boni Antiu of Sabah Parks and the Joint Event chairperson, this event is the biggest marine initiative amongst tourism stakeholders to date.
In conjunction with the clean-up event, Sabah Park officiated at the opening of a new hiking trail at Bohey Dulang to solve congestion issues that have arisen due to large amount of visitors over the years.
The clean-up event and the opening of the new trail was officiated by Sabah Parks chairman, Mohd Amin bin Abdul Mem.
He highlighted that Sabah Parks is working towards creating a guiding and porter service just like the one in operation at Mt Kinabalu Heritage Park to create job opportunities for the Semporna community.
“The Semporna community truly surprises me, their spirit of volunteerism in this program showcases how serious they are in wanting to change the bad reputation Semporna has received over the years regarding their issues with trash” said Aaron Teo, founder of 32 Marine.
He added that in this event, the amount of rubbish collected was six times more than their last clean-up event held last year at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
The official sponsors for this event were Good Earth Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, Uncle Chang’s, PADI, Suzuki Marine, and Asiatic Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd.
To keep up to date with more 32 Marine clean-up events please follow us at: www. facebook.com/32MarineSabah.