Tuesday April 27, 2010
By AMIN KHAIRUDDIN
MAmin@thestar.com.my
Source from: The Star Online
TO celebrate the 40th Earth Day, the Waterfall Survivors brought their Save Our Waterfalls campaign to the Sungai Kedondong Waterfall Recreational Park in Batang Kali, Selangor, on Sunday.
During the event, the Waterfall Survivors also launched a No Plastic Earth campaign in support of the Selangor government’s No Plastic Day campaign.
About 400 participants collected about two tonnes of rubbish from the lower stream of the waterfall.
Among the discarded items found by the volunteers were a tractor tyre found half buried in the sand and leftover food.
All geared up: About 400 volunteers turned up for the Sungai Kedondong clean-up.
“Malaysians are still unaware of what is happening to our Earth. Besides cleaning up the waterfall, today’s event also aims to educate participants about Earth Day.
“We also hope to show how indiscriminate dumping can harm our water sources,” Waterfall Survivors president and founder Joe Yap said.
“I think this is a good thing to do,” Waterfall Survivors member Low Mei Lin said.
Regular visitor Mohd Hazwan Razlan, 16, a student from Beranang, said the area did not have enough rubbish bins and many visitors were to lazy to walk to throw their rubbish.
Students from SMK Sri Ampang and Sunway University College joined in the clean-up as well.
“We have 120 students from our pre-university courses here.
“This project is a part of the Sun-U CR initiatives to raise awareness on environmental protection,” Sunway College University public relations representative Simpson Khoo said.
USJ Rotary member Alex Ow, 42, also brought his family along to take part in the event.
Good job: The team with some of the rubbish they managed to collect during the event.
“It is our first time here and I brought my children along to teach them to conserve,” Ow said.
“Tourism Selangor will give its full support to programmes like this.
“These programmes are important to us as they can play a role in promoting eco-tourism in Selangor,” Tourism Selangor general manager Noorul Ashikin said.
Waterfall Survivors is a social group founded on Facebook that has visited more than 80 waterfalls in Malaysia and has more than 4,500 registered members.
Last year, the group collected about three tonnes of garbage from Sungai Kanching, Selangor, during a similar project.
“We want Malaysians to preserve nature and our natural beauty,” Yap said.
