Best Practice IRBM Principles

One State One River Programme was launched in 2002 with the following objectives:

• To achieve clean, lively and valuable river with Class II water quality by 2015;

• To rehabilitate the river and its environment as a natural recreation area;

• To successfully adopt and implement Integrated River Basin Management; and

• To preserve the valuable asset of the river.

The programme required each state to select, with the agreement of state government one polluted river to be rehabilitated. The rehabilitation programme is to be carried out over a 10 to 15 years time frame with several short-term programmes as follows:

• Framework for rehabilitation programmes for upstream, middle and downstream stretch of river.

• Rubbish removal with installation of rubbish trap at source;

• Full enforcement of “Manual Saliran Mesra Alam (MSMA)” by local authorities for all land development;

• Enforcement of treatment system such as ‘Food, Oil & Grease’ (FOG) and Gross Pollutant Trap (GPT) by local authority for food stalls, market and other activities which contribute to river pollution;

• Resettlement of squatters and relocation of other activities besides river which cause pollution

• River and its reserve to be gazetted and utilized as riparian zone for different habitat depending on the river usage (such as urban, rural and water catchment);

• Promote and encourage private sector to practice Best Management Practices (BMPs) for all type of development such as Erosion and Sediment Control Plan (ESCP) to control erosion and sediment; and

• To tighten approval and enforcement of sand mining rules together with mandatory requirements for silt screen to control suspended sediment materials.

The main implementation strategies are Preventive Measures, Curative Measures and Management, and a few committees involving all stakeholders has been formed to achieve the vision of clean river.