As Giedre Steikunaite reported in Malaysian Vignettes the Th!nk3 KL bloggers made a field trip to the Sungai Way urban river project in Kuala Lumpur. Starting at its source, the Sungai Pencala, we travelled into the heart of the city to visit the River Care Education Centre and community composting plant.

W.A.T.E.R. was initiated by the GAB Foundation. Guinness Anchor Berhard (GAB) is a local brewery. The project is a partnership with the Global Environment Centre and the community who live beside the river.

The Star Online wrote last year:

Clean-up efforts are making Sungai Way cleaner and healthier not only for aquatic life, but for those living nearby too. Walking by the Sungai Way river in Selangor was an unpleasant experience less than two years ago. The water was “colourful”, thanks to the numerous plastic bags, empty containers and other rubbish caught in it. Forget about seeing any aquatic life. You’d be lucky to see into the water at all. And to top it all off, there was the pervasive stench of rotting garbage and pooled, dirty water. Now, however, it’s a completely different picture. Garbage and grease traps have been installed to stem refuse, and young trees have been planted along the river bank. There are also little green “islands” at different points along the river, the beginnings of a proper habitat for flora and fauna.
Making a splash 11 August 2009

If the extreme enthusiasm of our community guide is any measure, this project is an immense success. The 4 way partnership of industry, community, NGO and government agencies is a model for cleaning up other parts of KL's river system that seem to be in dire need of attention.