THE dredging and widening works for Sungai Klang from Shah Alam to the river’s mouth in Klang is currently at 68% progress, with completion expected at the end of next year.
Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd (LLSB) managing director Syaiful Azmen Nordin said the works also aimed to increase Sungai Klang’s capacity by 40%.
“Since 2017, we have increased the river’s capacity from lower than 5% to 22% and this has reduced the risk of river overflowing.
“The floods that happened recently were mainly caused by insufficient drainage capacity rather than the river overflowing,” he said after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KDEB Waste Management Sdn Bhd (KDEBWM) at Bangunan Dewan Negeri Selangor in Shah Alam, Selangor on Wednesday (Aug 12).
The MOU marked the beginning of the collaboration between LLSB and KDEBWM to rehabilitate a former landfill in Telok Kapas, Klang.
Syaiful also said about 98,000 metric tonnes of rubbish has been cleared from Sungai Klang since 2017.
“Each metric tonne of rubbish requires RM200 to be cleared, so imagine how much money the state government had to spend to clear 98,000 metric tonnes of rubbish from the river.
“Besides cleaning the river, we are also actively conducting awareness programmes to educate the people to not dispose of their rubbish into the river and they have yielded positive results. In 2017, we cleared about 16,000 metric tonnes of rubbish from Sungai Klang but now, we are only seeing about 5,000 to 6,000 metric tonnes of rubbish per year.
“If possible, we would like the amount to fall below 1,000 metric tonnes per year,” he said, adding that the amount of rubbish cleared from Sungai Klang has dropped by about 63% since 2017.
When asked about the progress of Sungai Klang’s dredging and widening from Shah Alam to Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Syaiful said the stretch is under the Federal Government’s jurisdiction.
