Thursday October 14, 2010
By JASTIN AHMAD TARMIZI jastin@thestar.com.my
source: The Star
MORE than 300 people joined the Waterfall Survivors in their ‘Save Our Waterfalls’ campaign by picking up rubbish left by picnickers at the Kanching waterfalls in Rawang recently.
The event was held simultaneously with
the 10-10-10 (Oct 10 2010) Global Work Party, the world’s largest day of practical action to fight the climate crisis coordinated by the international climate campaign 350.org.
Waterfall Survivors organises cleaning activities at waterfalls with the mission to educate picnickers and campers every year.
“We are here to help clean up our waterfalls and we hope that by doing this it will make picnickers realise that other people are cleaning up their mess. We hope that the message is sent across,” said one of the volunteers for the campaign.
Loads of rubbish: Waterfall Survivors and volunteers cleaning up the waterfall’s picnic and camping area.
The event was supported and endorsed by the Selangor state tourism, consumer affairs and environment committee, Tourism Selangor, the Selayang Municipal Council as well as the Public Service Department of Malaysia.
Waterfall Survivors’ secretary Cindy Ho said that this was the third time that they have worked with the state government to clean up Kanching Waterfall.
“The amount of rubbish littered outweighs what the caretakers can handle so people have to understand the consequences of their irresponsible actions,” she said.
Auspicious date: The Waterfall Survivors and volunteers forming the number 10:10 before the cleaning up started
“We need more initiatives to educate people on proper disposal of waste and to have better appreciation of nature,” she added.
The event also drew support from Fitness First, Olympus Malaysia, Teva Footwear, World of Sports, Bacfree, Pansing Marketing and Southern Lion as well as Star RFM 988 and China Press as the official media.
Waterfall Survivors founder and President Joe Yap said they hoped that the event could send the message and bring awareness to people on the consequences of littering.
“We are taught not to litter. We do not litter at home but we litter everywhere else. We hope that we can change the mentality of the people,” she said.
