Was River of Life Project Doomed to Fail?

The RM4.4 billion River of Life (RoL) project to rejuvenate the confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers was doomed to fail from the beginning, said an NGO. The Save Kuala Lumpur (Save KL) chairman said the project’s scope was too myopic, focusing on a small portion of the river system, which made it counterproductive to its main objectives. The rivers start uphill in Gombak, flow through KL, and then to Klang. If you only address the KL portion of the system, how successful can you be?

According to the 2024 auditor-general’s (A-G) report, the RoL project, which has faced more than eight years of delays, is unlikely to be completed in 2024. The report said that as of July 2023, eight out of 159 RoL-related projects were still ongoing, with completion progress ranging from 21% to 97.3%.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

The RoL comprises three components: river cleaning, river beautification and commercialisation and tourism, none of which has been fully achieved, according to the report. The audit found that only 79.4% of river beautification works have been completed, and only 50 out of 296 sewage treatment plants rationalised or upgraded. The project focussed on making attractions on the riverbanks but did not address the core issue of flood elimination, which would benefit the rakyat, was the view of the NGO.

So, was it doomed to fail? Yes, if the focus was just the confluence of the Gombak and Sg. Kelang. Is this to help some select people? In Europe, rivers are useful for transport, recreation or even living – river boats are anchored on the Thames (London). Can we try to copy others? No shame in that, if it is good for all!

Reference:

River of Life project doomed to fail from day one, says NGO, Danish Raja Reza, FMT, 11 July 2024