Kinta River clean-up starts - The Star

Nov 23, 2010

IPOH: Efforts to restore the Kinta River “to its former glory” has started, with a task force set up to look into beautifying and cleaning its banks and water.

Perak executive councillor Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said the task force, headed by the Ipoh City Council, also included representatives from the Drainage and Irrigation Depart­ment, the Batu Gajah Municipal Council and other authorities.

The task force would start a clean-up campaign of the 110km-long river by next week, he told reporters here yesterday.

Cause for concern: Dr Mah pointing to a video clip showing the polluted Kinta River in Ipoh Monday.

Dr Mah said the cleanliness of a river was classified under five categories – with a Class One river being the cleanest and Class Five the most polluted.

He said the task force would not only be looking at cleaning the river but also clearing the rubbish strewn in its surroundings, adding that the initial clean up would cover a 3km stretch between Gunung Cheroh and Kampung Paloh.

“The quality of the water there is mostly of Class Two level and about 20% of it is Class Three,” he said, adding that the Class One quality water was near Tanjung Rambutan.

“We want it to be restored to its former glory,” Dr Mah said, adding that the Kinta had been clean and clear river in the 1970s .

He said sewerage management company Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) contributed to about 40% of the pollution, followed by wet markets (29%) and restaurants (28%).

The rest of the pollution was from waste and residue from industrial factories, poultry farms and housing development projects.

Dr Mah said IWK had been plagued with problems involving its sewerage treatment system after people started dumping rubbish at its sewerage plants.

“They are currently handling the issue,” he said, adding that two IWK treatment plants had been set up near Gunung Cheroh and near the Yik Foong shopping centre in the city.

Dr Mah said four other plants at Canning Garden, Pengkalan, Waller Court and Wah Keong Park would be upgraded, adding that restaurant owners and wet markets should install grease traps at their premises.

Celebs help club to clean up river - Star

Nov 17, 2009

SOME 60 Leo Club members spent a recent Sunday morning cleaning up the banks of the Kinta River in Ipoh under their ‘Keep Our Sungai Kinta Clean’ project.

Organised in conjunction with Eco Week 2009 by the Leo Club of SMJK Sam Tet, the clean-up was attended by fellow Leos from five other schools in Ipoh.

They also managed to rope in celebrities from Malaysia Celebrities Go Green (MCG2), namely actor-TV host Baki Zainal, singer Azizi Zakaria, radio DJ Faradina Mohd Nadzir who is better known as Dina and Miss Malaysia World 2008/2009 Soo Wincci.

Baki said the MCG2 artistes were committed to caring for the environment.

Soo (right) joining Leo member in removing an old peice of wood on the Sungai Kinta banks.

“We travelled from Kuala Lumpur to show our support,” said Baki.

Azizi said he was using his popularity to get his fans to go green.

Dina hoped more young people would realise the importance of keeping the environment clean.

The clean-up covered a 1km stretch of the river bank between Jalan Sultan Idris Shah and Jalan Sultan Iskandar Shah.

Alan Thoo, the chairman for Leos in District 308B2 (Selangor to Perlis), said the Leos picked up not only plastic but also broken bottles, old tyres, old jeans and pieces of wood that had been dumped on the river banks.