River Care

The National River Care Fund (NRCF) is paying tribute to Malaysia’s most deserving river care champions through the River Care Award 2021.

Global Environment Centre river care programme manager Dr Kalithasan Kailasam said setting up an authority for a specific river basin was a good way moving forward. “Setting up such an authority is actually a holistic way forward for sustainable river management, especially when it involves a shared river.”

Kalithasan said a one-stop agency on rivers must be led by the federal government but comprise state governments, which have a valid economic reason to want to exploit resources that could affect water catchment areas.

THE Covid-19 pandemic and movement control order (MCO) have made people realise the importance of nature’s resources and the need to care for it for our health and well-being, says Faizal Parish. “People realised its importance when they were forced to stay home and didn’t have access they normally would to fresh food, ” said…

“Among the activities or initiatives they have conducted are river stretch adoption programme, establishing community garden, conducting zero-waste awareness programme and more. Since its commencement in 2016, these river care initiatives under the ROLPOP5 has outreached to a large number of participation.”

About 150 urbanites residing in the Klang Valley were treated to half-day river educational activities happened concurrently at 150 m stretch of Klang River next to the AU2 Urban Community Garden.

Global Environment Centre River Care Programme manager Dr Kalithasan Kailasam said the success, achieved via strict enforcement and continuous efforts to rehabilitate the river, proved that it could be done.

Public parks, community gardens and colourful murals are just some of the ways Sungai Klang and Sungai Gombak have been transformed through the River of Life outreach programme, which has helped educate the people on the importance of preserving our waterways.