By Zareef Muzammil
KLANG, March 24 — The rehabilitation of Sungai Klang over the past five years has increased the Water Quality Index (WQI) reading from class four to three.
Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said more than 67,000 metric tonnes of garbage was removed from the river during the five-year period under the Selangor Maritime Gateway (SMG) project.
“The state government has spent about RM45 million to clean the river by building log booms or trash traps.
“We found that the amount of (garbage) collected had reduced to 30 to 35 tonnes per day compared to the previous 40 to 50 tonnes,” he told the media after a site visit here yesterday.
Amirudin added that the achievement was also driven by the use of the Interceptor that complements the clean-up efforts of the river waters along a 56-kilometres stretch from Midvalley to the estuary in Port Klang.
He said Sungai Klang was selected as the first river in the country to use the new generation of river cleaning machine in collaboration with The Ocean Cleanup founded by Boyan Slat.
“The Interceptor was obtained free of charge as a result of the cooperation with the non-governmental organisation (NGO) to trap the garbage from the river,” he said.
