Raising awareness on river pollution in Malaysia

cap-net stories of change 6

Impact: Changes in policies, plans and strategies

Partners: MyCDNet, ASPEC (Malaysia)

The training developed capacity on how to safeguard the sustainability of the public outreach programme, which under the Ministry of Federal Territories, monitor and prevent river pollution through effective stakeholder engagement. The local authorities became more aware of the water pollution sources at the sites that were visited during the training, and subsequently organized a workshop resulted  which was attended by river-related government agencies and the local community to come up with solutions to solve the pollution problems of the Batu river. After the workshop, monthly river clean-ups took place, together with a recycling corner in the community centre and monthly recycling drives. Communities are more aware of river pollution and its prevention, and the importance of separating, recycling and reducing waste. Batu river clean-up activities continue to see increased numbers of participants and apartment complexes are reaching out to the consultants to carry out recycling drives at the premises. Some are even starting to organize recycling drives independently.

Furthermore, lecturers from the International Islamic University of Malaysia who attended the training also applied the knowledge gained by organizing together with the local community a clean-up and river water quality monitoring activities at the Gombak river basin.