A COMMUNITY cleanup in Semporna’s Kampung Sri Aman saw over 800kg of rubbish collected from the village and surrounding waters.
The programme, made possible through a pilot project by Reef Check Malaysia along with the village committee, was launched in March to manage waste in the area.
The event held earlier this month saw 53 people, including children, participating in a gotong-royong and collecting 476.5kg of waste from public areas within the village.
Reef Check Malaysia senior programme manager Adzmin Fatta said in a statement that the rubbish mainly comprised plastic packaging and bottles.
They also collaborated with waste management and recycling company Amwil Deslen Management and Supplies PLT to deploy boats to collect floating waste from surrounding waters.
A total of 350.8kg of floating debris was removed, consisting of cloth, rubber mats and other bulky materials.
“In total, 827.3 kg of waste was removed from both the village and surrounding coastal waters in a single day,” said Adzmin.
He said the clean-up demonstrated the growing effectiveness of the village’s community-based waste management system.
“The pilot programme has expanded from 50 participating households to all 100 households in Kampung Sri Aman,” said Adzmin.
“Households now separate waste into designated categories before delivering it to a central collection point every Monday and Friday, where it is weighed, recorded and transported for proper disposal.”
He said continuous house-to-house monitoring and a simple household scoring system had also been introduced to encourage better waste segregation and strengthen long-term behavioural change.
As of June 22, participating households had collectively diverted 3,974.52kg of waste through the community collection system, with plastics accounting for the largest proportion of materials recovered.
To further strengthen the programme, Adzmin said residents also collaborated to build a community-managed waste collection shed, which served as a dedicated facility for storing recyclables and coordinating waste collection activities.
Senallang community development leader Roslan Mohd Padlan commended the initiative during his visit.
Village head Hassan Gabra Hajan said the community intends to organise a monthly gotong-royong to encourage greater participation in maintaining a cleaner and healthier environment.
“Waste management is not simply about collecting rubbish; it is about building ownership, changing behaviour and creating systems that locals can sustain themselves,” he said.
Adzmin said the organisation expressed hope that the lessons from Kampung Sri Aman would inspire similar community-led waste management initiatives across water villages in Semporna and other coastal communities in Sabah.
