Mother Nature is not your dumping ground!
It has been reported that over RM25 million has been spent on cleaning polluted rivers in the country over the past three years.
Cleaning has to be done daily at Sungai Klang due to the heavy amount of garbage and rubbish dumped upstream while for more of the other rivers and tributaries, cleaning maintenance is done weekly or monthly.
Drainage and Irrigation Department’s river basin and coastal management division director, Datuk Lim Chow Hock said the cost of cleaning varies as it depends on how polluted a river is.
Based on the amount of rubbish thrown into the river, the four most polluted ones are Sungai Klang, Sungai Tebrau, Sungai Skudai and Sungai Pinang.
The Federal Government has allocated RM114 mil to revitalise rivers from year 2006 to 2015 under the “One State One River” programme which is aimed at the most polluted rivers.
Datuk Lim said rivers are not as polluted in Sabah and Sarawak as most people refraine from throwing rubbish into the drains.
“It all boils down to having the right attitude and being civic-minded when disposing rubbish,” he added.
34 rivers were listed under the polluted category in 2012 River Water Quality report by the Department of Environment. Out of 473 rivers that are monitored in Malaysia, 161 were categorised as slightly polluted while the rest were classified as clean.
States that fell under the category of most polluted rivers are Johor with 18, Penang with 9, Malacca and Kelantan with 2 each and Kedah, Perak, Terengganu and Selangor with 1 each.
