Keeping Johor beaches clean

Shocking find: Skud Amali Pantai Bestari volunteers cleaning up the Tanjung Sepang beach in Kota Tinggi where some 1044kg of trash were cleared.

PONTIAN: A walk at the seaside of Pontian about three years ago turned out to be a life-changing moment for Mohd Fairuz Muhammad.

The trash along the seaside captured his attention and while picking up the rubbish, he decided that more should be done to preserve the environment.

“I do not always go to the beach and when I went there that evening I was shocked to see the trash there.

“I decided to do something about this. I told one of my closest friends about my intention to clean as many beaches as I could, ” he said.

Together with his friend Mohd Khairulnizai Khairudin, they embarked on a mission to clean all the beaches in Johor.

“It was just the two of us in the beginning but we later decided to get more people involved and that was when we started the Skuad Amal Pantai Bestari Facebook page.

“We invited people to join us in cleaning the beaches and slowly, more people turned out to do their bit for the environment, ” said the 32-year-old who has been actively volunteering for over a decade.

He said that to date, some 1,000 individuals had joined them in cleaning up beaches.

“People from all walks of life have joined us, including schoolchildren as well as organisations.

“We conduct our activity at least twice every month and would go to a different beach every time, ” he said.

Mohd Fairuz added that they had cleaned more than 20 beaches in Johor, including those in Kota Tinggi and Mersing.

“I hope to inspire the public, especially children, and let them know that they are capable of making a significant change.

“We need to start somewhere and sometimes a simple task like picking up one’s trash is all it takes, ” he added.- Star