After Selangor's success in Klang River cleanup, advocates hope more Malaysian states follow suit
Malaysia’s efforts to revive its polluted rivers aims to reduce plastic waste from making its way into the sea.
The Ocean Cleanup's Interceptor 002, deployed in the Klang River.
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KUALA LUMPUR: The Klang River winds through the most densely populated areas in Malaysia, stretching across the capital city and Selangor state to the Straits of Malacca.
Parts of the 120km-long waterway are riddled with waste, ranging from plastic discards to industrial runoff that eventually flow into the ocean.
Still, the river’s pollution levels today are much lower than a decade ago, when its water was so contaminated it was deemed unsuitable for any use.
Initiatives launched by Selangor’s state government to clean up and inject new life to the river have been met by some success.
But with about 2 million people living around the waterway, such efforts are no mean feat.
“There are six main rivers (contributing to the Klang River), and close to 100 tributaries. We have 25 industrial areas (along the river), so it is very challenging for us,” said Syaiful Azmen Nordin, managing director of Landasan Lumayan.
The master developer was appointed by state authorities to oversee the Selangor Maritime Gateway project, which includes cleaning, rehabilitating and developing the river and its surroundings.
TRAPPING PLASTICS
Dutch non-governmental organisation The Ocean Cleanup has been am integral part of the rejuvenation.
The green non-profit deployed two garbage collection vessels called the Interceptor in the river for the past few years.
One is placed near state capital Shah Alam, and the second is placed close to the mouth of the river as the last line of defence before plastic waste reaches the sea. The latter, named Interceptor 005 and Neon Moon I, was sponsored by British rock band Coldplay.
The Grammy-winning band, which performed a sold-out concert in Malaysia last year, is big on environmental efforts. It has supported The Ocean Cleanup since 2018.
The Interceptor, a river clean-up technology, is completely solar-powered and fully automated.
Rubbish flowing with the river current is trapped by barriers and brought to dumpsters through a conveyer belt system. Once sensors determine the system is almost at full capacity, a text message is sent to operators to collect the waste. Currently, garbage is collected every two days and disposed in landfills.
Efforts are underway to build a sorting facility in the next few months in Klang to extract plastics from the river waste and recycle them.
“Our job is not yet done there. Together with our local partners, we aim to deploy additional solutions in the Klang River, so that we have a dirty river coming in, but a clean river coming out,” said the non-profit’s founder and CEO Boyan Slat.
GLOBAL EXPANSION
Aside from the Klang River, The Ocean Cleanup plans to expand coverage to other waterways in Malaysia, with a goal to deploy its Interceptors in 1,000 rivers globally.
Malaysia will be a strategic launchpad for the foundation’s green ambitions, particularly in Southeast Asia.
The environmental organisation opened its first regional office in Kuala Lumpur last year, and signed a memorandum of cooperation with Malaysian authorities to expand and strengthen collaboration on reducing plastic pollution in rivers.
It hopes to dispatch Malaysian-made Interceptors to 20 rivers in Southeast Asia and Central America next year.
Private Malaysian firm MHE Demag is currently manufacturing the technology.
Slat said that the technology is the fastest and cheapest way to filter out the trash from rivers before its gets to the open sea, where pollution would be much harder to manage.
“Preventing plastic from getting into the rivers and on the streets, that will take a while... before you have really good infrastructure to take care of the waste. But until that happens, we can at least prevent it from going into the ocean... and help drive the change further,” he added.
There are currently 16 such vessels deployed along 15 rivers in eight countries, including Indonesia and Thailand.
Together, they have managed to prevent less than 2 per cent of the world’s plastic waste from flowing into the ocean. Hence, the non-profit hopes to massively widen its operations.
A CLEANER KLANG RIVER
Since cleaning operations involving the Interceptors began in the Klang River five years ago, its water quality has improved.
In 2016, the Water Quality Index (WQI) in the river was at class five, which means it was considered to be highly contaminated most of the time.
Today, the index is at class three for about 60 per cent of the year. The classification means the water is moderately polluted, but would be suitable to feed livestock after treatment.
The Selangor Maritime Gateway project has since progressed to using the river as an educational tool for visitors.
It organises trips – including clean-up and tree planting excursions – to educate the public on shared responsibility to protect the environment.
“People used to treat the riverbank as an illegal dumping site. But after we started this project, in collaboration with local authorities, we have managed to close down five sites of illegal dumping,” said Syaiful.
He added the government has spent RM30 million (US$6.8 million) in the past five years to fish out 2 million tons of waste from Klang River.
Malaysia is one of the world's highest emitters of plastics to the oceans, environmental studies show.
Observers said a massive scale up is necessary given the billions of losses the nation faces each year to tourism, fisheries and health risks due to plastic pollution.
Environmental advocates hope Selangor’s success with their 56km stretch of the Klang River will inspire other states and countries in the region to clean up their waterways.
