By Cynthia | Education and Public Awareness Officer
Mabul Island, located in the district of Semporna, in Sabah, Malaysia, is renowned for its world-class diving sites. It is located not too far away from another famous diving site, Sipadan Island.
Earlier this year, a district-level campaign was launched, which inspired the local island community on Mabul to show remarkable effort to clean their island. The village head, Yusuf Jalal spearheaded this long-term effort, which includes three clean-up efforts to date.
In March, more than 1,000 islanders removed over 10,000 kilograms of debris in a comprehensive clean-up effort. In June, a second clean-up resulted in the removal of another 8,000 kilograms of waste, giving the island a much cleaner look.
Just last month, the third phase of this initiative collected an additional 5,000 kilograms of rubbish, bringing the total rubbish collected since early this year more than 23,000 kilograms.
According to Yusuf, “This collaborative effort is by everyone in this village who aims to see a better and cleaner Mabul. We have reminded ourselves that our island has been labelled as "dirty", despite having world-level diving sites.” He highlighted collaboration with the district office and other government agencies, besides expressing gratitude to Reef Check Malaysia for our technical support.
“We hope that the government will consider establishing a waste management system for our island, which will greatly help us prevent more trash from ending up in the sea and polluting our beaches,” added Yusuf. He also mentioned that such regular clean-ups will require more resources, including costs for materials and transportation.
Adzmin Fatta, programme manager of Reef Check Malaysia, commended the villagers' dedication and the leadership of Yusuf. "I have witnessed great cooperation among the islanders, especially the village leadership. We will continue to work with the village committee and the islanders and provide our support whenever we can," he said.
Mubin Paraja, a villager and member of the Mabul Island Waste Management Committee, said this was the first-ever community-led effort showcasing everyone’s commitment to addressing waste management issues on the island.
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