Johor sets up River Pollution Enforcement, Monitoring Taskforce - exco

JOHOR BAHRU, July 2 (Bernama) -- The Johor government has set up a River Pollution Enforcement and Monitoring Taskforce in an effort to address the issue of river pollution in the state.

State Tourism, Environment, Heritage and Culture Committee chairman, K. Raven Kumar, said that the committee was set up following his visit to Sungai Tebrau and Sungai Skudai, here, two months ago, which were badly polluted with rubbish.

He said that the Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID) collected more than 500 tonnes of garbage in the two rivers in a year, with an annual maintenance cost of RM650,000.

“This does not include garbage removed from Sungai Tebrau by the Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB), which is almost 900 tonnes a year.

“As a follow-up from the visit, I have instructed that a River Pollution Enforcement and Monitoring Taskforce be established as soon as possible. A week after the visit, I chaired the committee meeting,” he said during the launching of the Johor Bersih@Sungai Tebrau Campaign and Scavenger Boat at Kampung Bakar Batu Jetty, here today.

Menteri Besar, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, officiated the launch.

Raven Kumar said that various strategies had been formulated to ensure that the cleanliness of the rivers was maintained, including the installation of more garbage trap structures, implementing public outreach programmes and holding gotong-royong activities.

“It will be implemented in phases and according to issues, with this meeting focused on the districts of Johor Bahru and Kulai, which are often attracting media coverage for river pollution issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Onn Hafiz said two Scavenger boats to collect garbage under the operation of DID will be used in all rivers throughout Johor.

He said that a boat, that could trap three tonnes of rubbish in a single trip, would commence at Sungai Tebrau and Sungai Skudai, where domestic rubbish from squatter houses was detected dumped into the river.

“In Sungai Tebrau alone, 85 tonnes of rubbish was collected by MBJB in January this year. These boats will operate every day, and if it is really effective then we will add more boats to do the cleaning work,” he said.

--BERNAMA