SHAH ALAM, April 20 — The Movement Control Order (MCO) which came into force on March 18 has led to a 43 percent reduction in the total amount of rubbish extracted from Klang River.

Managing Director of Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd (LLSB), Syaiful Azmen Nordin, in a statement today said from March 15 to April 15, 580 metric tonnes (MT) of rubbish were collected under the Selangor Maritime Gateway (SMG) project compared to an average of 900 to 1,200MT per month over the last six months.

He said during this period, Klang River recorded Class III Water Quality Index (WQI) readings almost 90 percent of the time, compared to last year until March, whereby although the overall WQI stood at Class III as well, it was only for about 46 percent of the time.

"This is a clear indication that minimising the movement of people and business operations can help the river heal as indicated by the higher frequency of our WQI at Class III. What more important is improving the water quality even further, as international data has shown that clean water is a key factor for economic growth,” he said.

LLSB was mandated by the Selangor State Government to revive Klang River through cleaning, rehabilitation and rejuvenation under the SMG project. — Bernama