Thanks to a group of eco warriors, Sg Klang is less dirty now. Stay tuned to find out how other rivers are faring.
More than 35 tonnes of trash collected since we began in 2016, says eco warrior
KLANG: It was while strolling along the banks of Sungai Klang one evening that Jordan K. L. Ng was motivated by his wife to start a river clean-up programme to pick up rubbish.
“Both of us realised that if the river can be cleaned up, it can serve as a tourist spot,” said the advertising company owner, who lives within walking distance of the river.
Today, the non-profit organisation Kelab Warisan Sungai Klang, founded by the father of two in 2016, has scooped up more than 35 tonnes of trash from the banks of Sungai Klang along Jalan Tepi Sungai.
Among the trash picked up by Ng, 48, and his volunteers were plastic bottles, discarded clothes, old luggage bags, single-use plastic bags, aluminium cans, and even broken wooden chairs and tables.
“But that is just a small amount. People just treat Sungai Klang as a rubbish dump. It is deliberate dumping as many people dump all kinds of waste.
“It happens in the housing areas and the trash finds its way into the monsoon drain and ultimately into Sungai Klang,” he said.
He added that hopefully, by removing such trash piece by piece with the support of volunteers, this would cause people to rethink their actions.
For Ng, cleaning up the river bank has become his passion and he has a core team of 10 friends, who continue to motivate him in his task, which he says “is for the future generation”.
Currently, much of the trash picked up by the group ends up in the landfill.
“I hope that in the future, the plastic could be recycled,” he said, adding that their volunteers come from schools, government departments and other non-governmental groups.
“It is important to get everyone involved to keep the waterways clean,” said Ng, whose work to clean up the river has since gained momentum among the public.
He said he was also glad that the Selangor Maritime Gateway (SMG) under the Menteri Besar Inc (MBI) has a Dutch-designed trash interceptor in Sungai Klang to remove floating rubbish in the river, complementing the work of Kelab Warisan Sungai Klang.
MBI has entered into a partnership with Dutch non-governmental organisation Ocean Cleanup, an engineering environmental organisation based in Rotterdam.
Ng said the trash interceptor contributed by Ocean Cleanup was being used to collect floating debris, adding that he hoped to get companies to sponsor similar devices that could be operated along Sungai Klang in the areas of Gombak, Subang, Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya.
“If this can be done, then Sungai Klang would be much cleaner,” he said.
How clean or polluted are our rivers, including those located near you? To find out, check out The Star’s special report on the state of Malaysia’s rivers on Friday.