Criss-crossed by over 150 rivers, Malaysia is a country that sources 98 per cent its water from streams and rivers.
Protecting natural water sources and ensuring a steady supply of drinking water for Malaysians has therefore been a key priority of the SPARK Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Heineken Malaysia, which last week announced it would be investing RM2.5 million into water conservation efforts.
Under the third phase of its Working Actively Through Education and Rehabilitation (W.A.T.E.R) project, SPARK Foundation will fund two key initiatives in the river basins of Sungei Way, Sungai Penchala and Sungai Selangor.
Under the ‘Water for Water’ project, a rainwater harvesting system will be set up in a residential unit with 1,800 residents in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Secondly, the ‘water for quality’ projects of Heineken Malaysia’s Water Stewardship Agenda, also launched last week, will focus on reforesting and planting wetlands to improve the natural water filtration system at selected points in the north Selangor peat swamp forest and along the Penchala basin respectively.
“The W.A.T.E.R Project has been a success due to smart partnership with government agencies and communities.
The second phase, which started in 2009, kick-started education and outreach programmes for communities living along Sungai Senam, tributaries of the Kinta river basin and the Sungao Penchala basin to teach them about river adoption and pollution mapping.
“But through consistent engagement to improve awareness on the issue, we eventually saw local communities taking ownership of the river agenda when they saw the potential of real changes in the environment, which helped improve their quality of life,” she added.
Indrarajah said climate change posed the biggest threat to Malaysia’s water security, but this could be an opportunity for businesses that work with water or use water as a resource.
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