Cover image via Ong Kian Ming
If you have seen pictures of Kuala Lumpur's rivers, you would have realised that our rivers have the colour of teh tarik and a lot of people end up using them as "big garbage bins"
Image via SkyScraperCity
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Image via Ong Kian Ming
While most of us would stay away from these rivers, DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, organised a kayak expedition and navigated through the polluted Sungai Gombak with his team. He wanted to better understand the 'River of Life' (RoL) project.
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Image via Ong Kian Ming
**"RoL project is supposed to turn the Gombak and Klang rivers from a Class III – Class V level rivers (not suitable for body-contact) to a Class IIB (suitable for body-contract & recreational usage) rivers," Ong said.**
Seeing that it was a rather unusual experience, he did all the necessary preparations before embarking on this journey
Before the expedition, Ong recruited his former intern, Tham Pei Ting, an outdoor enthusiast and Jeffrey Lim, an avid cyclist from Studio 25, to help him recce parts of the Gombak and Klang rivers
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Image via Ong Kian Ming
**"This recce trip was not just helpful in terms of logistics planning for the RoL kayak expedition. More importantly, it provided me with a ground level understanding of the potential of and challenges faced by the RoL project," the Serdang MP shared on his [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/ongkianming/posts/933514563370271).**
Ong, who has been documenting his RoL journey on Facebook, shared a few things that he noticed from his expedition, like how people regularly fish along and sometimes in the Gombak river
Image via Ong Kian Ming
However, it is worrying that people are fishing and eating fishes from the river because Ong revealed that there were many dead fish around the river. He has urged the Department of Environment (DoE) to investigate the source of the dead fish.
Image via Jeff Lim/Ong Kian Ming
Image via Jeff Lim/Ong Kian Ming
The Serdang MP has definitely put himself through all kinds of inconvenience for this project. But why? He has a few reasons, three of which are about good governance and ensuring transparency:
"Even though I grew up in PJ and am now residing in Serdang, KL holds a special place in my heart. It would be very satisfying for me to see a rehabilitated KL that could be enjoyed by more people in a variety of ways that does not include shopping indoors," Ong said.
Image via Ong Kian Ming
If you haven't already started caring about RoL like Ong did, you should. A lot are at stake – there's a lot of money and precious waterfront land involved, and everyone wants a share of the pie.
Image via Ong Kian Ming
Besides money, many communities around the area are also directly affected by this project
The journey to restoration is a long one but Ong Kian Ming is not about to give up as he is planning another kayak expedition, this time off the Old Klang Road to Klang.
Meanwhile, watch this video about Ong and his team's kayak expedition at the Gombak River:
