EFFORT TOWARDS CLEANING AND REHABILITATION OF DIRTY AND POLLUTED RIVERS IN MALAYSIA

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) --  A JICA training program under the second wave of Look East Policy (LEP 2.0 scheme) entitled “Successful Operation and Maintenance of River of Life Project” was carried out in Osaka, Japan from 22^nd October until 11^th November 2017. 

Fourteen (14) participants from various relevant authorities in the Malaysian Government such as the Ministry of Federal Territories (KWP), Department of Irrigation and Draining (DID) of the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), took part in this program. These participants are officers in charge of river cleaning, river beautification and river development aspects of the River of Life (RoL) project currently progressing in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The River of Life project started in 2011 and scheduled to be completed by year 2020. It is one of the Malaysian Government efforts towards transforming the Klang and Gombak Rivers into vibrant and liveable waterfront with high economic value. 

JICA has collaborated with the Malaysian Government through the DID in formulating this training with objective of sharing Japanese knowledge and experience in cleaning polluted rivers into the sustainably clean rivers that can be seen in Japan today. Lessons during the training include history of sewage and its administration in Japan especially in tackling river pollution caused by rapid development. The Japanese Government took action including improvement of legislations and enforcement of law in order to rehabilitate and maintain clean rivers. At the same time, awareness on the importance of river water was also instilled within members of public through education and carrying out of public events.

The knowledge and experiences learned through this training program are expected to be utilised as a reference to support the River of Life project and achieving cleaning and rehabilitation of dirty and polluted rivers in Malaysia.
 
More information can be found at　https://www.jica.go.jp/malaysia/english/office/topics/171111.html.
 
SOURCE : Japan International Cooperation Agency Malaysia Office (JICA)