University students and locals plant trees at Kinta River in Malaysia

With the belief that the best time to start planting trees is today, a total of 220 participants from Kampung Pengkalan Gate and Quest International University Perak joined hands to plant 100 trees at the bank of Kinta River in Malaysia. The group cleaned up the Kinta River riverbank, segregated waste and planted bamboo, gaharu and kangsar samplings along the riverside of Kinta River at Kampung Pengkalan Gate near Balai Bomba Pasir Puteh in conjunction with World Habitat Day which celebrated yearly on the first Monday of October. 

The programme entitled “Riverbank Clean-up and Tree Planting Along Sungai Kinta”, is organized by Quest International University Perak and Global Environment Centre (GEC).  

Professor Dato’ Dr. Raman Narayanasamy, Vice-Chancellor of Quest International University Perak said, "the programme was conducted as part of Quest International University (QIU) Perak’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project to plant 1 million trees around riverbank and forest in Perak with long-time collaboration with the Forestry Department of Perak. The project also aims to raise environmental awareness among the students by having them directly participate in our tree planting activities". Mr. Norazrin Mamat, Programme Officer of GEC said that “the programme is also conducted to support the Integrated Management of Upper Kinta Basin project through community participation by GEC in partnership with Hasanah Foundation, Ipoh City Council (MBI), Perak Department of Drainage and Irrigation (DID) as well as Perak Department of National Unity and integration (JPNIN) as well as other key government agencies.”

The Integrated Management of Upper Kinta Basin project was designed with aims to conserve forest and riverine habitats in the Upper Kinta river basin to support the state government as well as the Central Forest Spine initiative through cross-sector partnership and community empowerment. Mr. Norazrin Mamat further stated, “recognising that KRT Kampung Pengkalan Gate has stepped forward to adopt a stretch of Kinta River nearby their resident under the Integrated Management of Upper Kinta Basin project, QIU Perak collaborated with GEC and the local communities to organize this programme since planting trees along a river stretch is a good initiative to prevent land erosion at the riverbank and potential river pollution from the erosion. So, we are killing two birds with one stone through this collaboration. The programme is also a good initiative to keep our earth green and help fight climate change.”

The participants began the programme by cleaning up the riverbank and segregate waste according to its type and then, started planting 100 trees along the riverside of Kinta River. From the clean-up and waste segregation activities, a total of 219 KG of waste were collected.

(With Global Environment Centre)