Jiuhu Boleh again....sungei sai sui still look like lang kou sui after spending $1.2b

[k1976]

Malaysia’s ambitious River of Life project struggles to meet deadline despite $1.2 billion spent​

The estuaries of Gombak River (left) and Klang River (right) in an old section of Malaysia's capital city Kuala Lumpur. PHOTO: BERNAMA

Hazlin Hassan
Malaysia Correspondent
Updated

Aug 18, 2024, 10:01 PM

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KUALA LUMPUR - One of the oldest mosques in Malaysia’s capital city and the river banks around it have undergone a radical makeover in recent years to beautify the heritage heart of Kuala Lumpur’s old downtown.
In the evenings, the riverbanks around Masjid Jamek are often covered in theatrical mist – hissing out from rows of pipes – and the river water is lit in a stunning shade of blue.
The riverbanks near another prominent landmark nearby, the Sultan Abdul Samad Building that used to house the offices of the British colonial administration, have also been rejuvenated.

The mosque sits at the meeting point of two major rivers, Gombak and Klang, and the area is reputedly where Kuala Lumpur – a “muddy estuary” in Malay – was born.
The rivers are among eight in the Federal Territory and Selangor that form the core of the ambitious River of Life (RoL) project that was initiated in 2011 to revitalise the waterways, with the aim of matching the success of Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon’s stream restoration project.
But while the impressive improvements are visible around the Masjid Jamek area, other areas along the riverbanks appear untouched though the project was launched 13 years ago.

 

[k1976]

Good Job...keep it up

 

[syed putra]

This was RosmaH's project.

 

[k1976]

The RoL was part of initiatives to clean up and beautify a 110km stretch of the national capital’s rivers and spur economic investment in the surrounding areas.

Unfortunately, despite RM3.9 billion (S$1.2 billion) spent on the project, it has faced over eight years of delays. And it will not meet its 2024 deadline to achieve its objectives, according to a damning report contained in the 2024 Auditor-General’s Report released on July 4.

Najib defended the RoL project in a Facebook post on July 16, saying it was 80 per cent completed in 2018, and that after his coalition was voted out of power that year, the project has progressed by only 1 per cent between 2018 and 2024.

The Auditor-General outlined a laundry list of failed targets.

“This includes RoL’s objectives to improve the river water quality to Class IIB (suitable for recreational use with body contact), which is hard to achieve, due to weaknesses in planning, implementation, low level of asset operations as well as low level of river care awareness,” the report said.

Another notable failure involved the construction of collapsible weir units – small dams designed to raise the water level for boating activities while allowing river water to flow during floods – costing RM33.37 million. One unit was non-operational and the other was not completed.

 

[k1976]

This was RosmaH's project.

NO wonder, do lai do kee also same same

 

[syed putra]

The projects objective was to squander. Nothing to do with cleaning up the river. I dunno why they still continue after Najib left office.