KUCHING, March 21: Alena Murang, Sarawak’s renowned sape artiste, has launched a music video to create awareness on river conservation in light of World Water Day 2019.
The three-minute video called ‘Pemung Jae’, a Kenyah folk song, is dubbed as the voices of the rivers that expose the current state of the Klang Valley rivers, complete with facts and data, for educational purposes.
Initiated by Alena with support from the River of Life Public Outreach Programme (ROLPOP), the music video features some of the organisation’s activities such as log boom clean-up and River Explorer Programme, where different parties were brought in to experience and highlight the current state of the river network.
“I had seen images of the River of Life clean-up project and was shocked that these places are areas that we pass by in KL (Kuala Lumpur) every day.
“I’m shocked because we are oblivious to it. Immediately, I got in touch with Yasmin Rasyid, who runs EcoKnights, to discuss how we could use the arts (music) to emotionally connect people to this environmental issue.
“I offered the idea of using sape music, as our music speaks a lot about rivers,” Alena said at the launch held at RUANG by Think City in Kuala Lumpur.
The music video, available on her Facebook page ‘Alena Murang’ (https://www.facebook.com/alenamurang/), will also be used as educational material to educate the public about the state of rivers, including The River of Life projects and activities in Kuala Lumpur under the Ministry of Federal Territories.
The River of Life is a project under National Economic Transformation Programme that aimed to transform Sungai Klang and its tributaries within the Greater Klang Valley region.
The objective is to revitalise the river from their current states into clean rivers that can support recreational activities, with vibrant and liveable waterfront, thereby increasing the economic values of its surroundings.
“We are very supportive towards any effort of the public in promoting river care awareness.
“Through Alena and the making of this video, we hope to reach more people into realising government efforts in river cleaning as well as to bring everyone together under the spirit of The River of Life,” said Kuala Lumpur Irrigation and Drainage director (River Basin Management) Mohd Khairi Selamat at the event.
For organisations and individuals who would like to be part of the river conservation programmes, do contact EcoKnights at info@ecoknights.org.my or call 03-77318361 between 10.30am and 6.00pm on weekdays.— DayakDaily
