The River of Life (RoL) project, identied as a project under the Government of Malaysia National Transformation Programme, aims transform the eight (8) rivers that are located within the Greater KL / KlangValley region. The project comprises of three (3) components i.e. River Cleaning, River Beautification and Commercialism and Toursim. The River of Life Public Outreach Programme (RoLPOP) is part of the key initiatives (12B) under the River Cleaning component. The programme which started in 2012, aims at on-the-ground education and behavioural change towards caring for rivers. Phase 1 and 2 of the programme have been completed for the Upper Klang River catchment and Bunus River, and is now expanded to Phase 3 - 5, covering the entire River of Life boundary.

 

Duration: 2017 - 2020

Funder: Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia

Partners: Kementerian Wilayah Persekutuan, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur

Website: klriver.org

Target groups:

• General public,
• Educational instituitional and students,
• Local communities,
• Food establishment, hawkers, wet markets and workshops, and
• Industries, corporations and developers.

Aim/objective:

Phase 5 of POP aims to address pollution by:

• Educating the public on common do’s and don’ts as well as other skills to preserve the river;
• Developing and promoting Best Management Practices (BMPs) linked to other thirteen (13) ROL key initiatives;
• Promoting a sense of ownership toward the river; and
• Initiating a long term and sustainable change in behavior towards conserving the river.

Overall Achievements:

Through targeted outreach, awareness on the RoL project, river care and pollution impact has increased through awareness campaigns, river adoption activities, volunteerism and media and social media outreach. The project secured more than 42,000 participations in 385 ROLPOP5 activities, with a total of 15 km of Klang River stretches  being monitored and 8.2 km total of Klang River stretch adopted by the local communities and organisations. One River Open Classroom and four Community Centres successfully established under ROLPOP5.

For more information about the project, please e-mail us at outreach@gec.org.my