KAGUM organized a National River Clean Up campaign on this day and Waterfall Survivors was part of the joint collaboration to clean up one of the rivers. Waterfall Survivors also took this opportunity to celebrate the World Environment Day today as an appreciation towards Mother Nature. We took up Sg. Pisang as our cleaning spot for this campaign.
Volunteers from Waterfall Survivors for today’s clean up was a much smaller group comparing the usual cleanup. There was only 12 of us altogether. But it was really fun and worth every effort that the Waterfall Survivors members has put in. We did not manage to clean up the whole place for sure, but all the volunteers used every of their effort to take as much of rubbish as possible to clean up the river.
Sg Pisang is located in Gombak near the old trunk road heading towards Genting Highlands. We reached there around 9am and started the clean up as soon as we settled down.
Although with only 12 people, the team spirit and team work was way beyond our expectation. All grabbed the garbage bags, armed with the gardening gloves and headed to the lower stream of Sg Pisang Waterfalls near the catchment area to clean up the river.
Glass Bottles (samsu bottles), diapers, plastic bottles, food wrapers, polystyrene plates and lunch boxes was the majority items found there.It is really sad scene when we see rubbish near the rivers.
Around 10am plus, more picnickers came around with their families in big and small plastic bags of food, BBQ pits and etc. Some even brought a whole strip of polystyrene plates. Is it really too much of trouble to bring reusable plates? Why want to create so much of rubbish?
The Before and After
There’s no rubbish bins at this Picnic area. But that doesn’t gives anyone an excuse at all to leave their rubbish at the riverside.
Spoke to a young gentleman by the name of Adi, who’s working with the Syabas and stays at the catchment area. He said he used to tell picnickers not to throw rubbish… and he’s being ignored all the time. Until there was one time, this poor guy was beaten up for asking people not to throw rubbish. Since then, he never tells people not to throw rubbish in the river but does his part, just quietly picking up the rubbish near the Syabas properties (the pipeline, near the catchment). Everyone should learn from this young man. And I really don’t understand why people can act such a way to beat up a young man who’s only wanting to keep the place clean? What is wrong with that?
The mentality of Malaysians today. Why aren’t they awake yet? Mother Nature is not asking for too much. She doesn’t mind to share her beauty with everyone… as long as she can make you happy. All she asked for is, after your happy moments, please bring away all that you’ve bring in without leaving anything behind so she can keep her beauty and pristine level. Is that too much to ask for? Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. Just as simple as that.
At the end of the session, we all managed to collect 47 bags of garbage. All the volunteers were so tired. we know they did their best to do what they could. But it’s sad that, before we even finish cleaning up, we see tissue papers on the floor where the people just thrown after eating ice-cream. They are unlucky that we did not see it, or we will be talking to them and telling them about how important it is to protect our mother nature and reduce waste. What a waste that they did not manage to learn this from us today.
We all left the place around 12pm. After a whole morning of hard work, the good food during lunch pays it off.
Thanks to all the volunteers today.
Our greatest respect and gratitude towards your contribution towards our Save Our Waterfalls in conjunction with National River Clean Up and World Environment Day.
Our gratitude goes to: Alwyn Ong, Mandy Wang, Chng Soek Mooi, Haider Al Darraji, Soo Sang Yeong, Royyie Ling, Chua Yoke Mee, Tiong Lim, Chng Xing Er, San Kwang Min, Sean Lim and Eva.
Thank you for sacrificing your beautiful Sunday with us here and contribute towards our Mother Nature.
All pictures are courtesy from Soo Sang Yeong
