By Sofia Nasir
SHAH ALAM, June 17 — The water quality of Sungai Klang has markedly improved since the Selangor Maritime Gateway (SMG) project began in 2022, having risen from Class 5 to Class 3 in three years.
Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd (LLSB) managing director Syaiful Azmen Nordin said the rehabilitation project, which includes the cleaning, deepening and widening of Sungai Klang, is starting to show promising results.
“Sungai Klang has 25 industrial areas along its basin and includes 13 smaller tributaries. This makes rehabilitation challenging, as there are many human factors that can impact the river.
“We aim to maintain Sungai Klang at Class 3 and above for 80 per cent of the 365 days each year,” he said in a press conference yesterday after a visit to the SMG flood mitigation project site, along a 15km stretch of the river with members of the media.
Rivers in Malaysia are classified into five categories, with those in Classes 1 to 3 deemed suitable sources of drinking water.
Meanwhile, Syaiful said, the Sungai Klang rehabilitation project is being carried out in Blocks 1 and 3, involving Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Puchong, Bandar Sultan Suleiman, and the Sungai Klang estuary.
Since the implementation of the flood mitigation plan in November 2022, 918,936.7 cubic metres of waste has been removed from the riverbed, increasing Sungai Klang’s capacity by 18 per cent.
[caption id="attachment_372419" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
The Interceptor 002 trash picker in action, seen during a visit by Tourism Selangor and Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd representatives, as well as media members, at Sungai Klang, on September 20, 2023. — Picture FIKRI YUSOF/SELANGORKINI[/caption]
“The river widening effort is expected to see Sungai Klang reach between 80 and 100m wide, from its original 50 to 60m, depending on the location. The target is to increase the river capacity by up to 40 per cent,” he said.
The Sungai Klang rehabilitation project consists of three main engineering components: design (including hydrological and hydraulic analysis, riverbank restoration, and slope protection, as well as flood barrier requirements), construction, and maintenance.
The 56km project, divided into four main blocks, is being carried out across all major flood hotspots, stretching from Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur to Port Klang.
In 2018, the state government launched the SMG project, led by LLSB, as an initiative to clean, rehabilitate, and develop the polluted Sungai Klang.
The initiative later expanded via the multi-phase SMG Economic Development Zone master plan.
