Bank officers, villagers clean up Mabul island beach

By Olivia Miwil - July 2, 2019 @ 12:12pm

SEMPORNA: A group of divers from RHB Bank Sports and Recreation Club and the community from the nearby village joined hands to clean up the beach off Mabul island recently.

The group spokeperson Nasarudin Che Ahmad said they managed to collect about ten bags of garbage in the joint "gotong royong" effort.

"This is part of our corporate social responsibility efforts for the Mabul community here, besides raising awareness on the importance of cleanliness. Club president Lim Eng Keng has been encouraging members to continue giving back to the community.

"Sabah, particularly Mabul, is a beautiful dive destination. Divers, particularly, will not enjoy the beautiful underwater world if there are rubbish everywhere," he added.

The group of 22 divers had been doing underwater cleanup while spending five days at Mabul, Sipadan, Mataking and Timba-Timba islands here since June 28.

The RHB diving team was formed in 2017, and its members have been wanting to go to the islands of Sabah as part of its annual fun diving itinerary.

Prior to the trip, Nasarudin said he had read the report "Alarm as drifting ocean rubbish begins converging on Sipadan" in the New Straits Times, and thought the team should do more for the environment.

"Throughout our stay at Seahorse Sipadan Lodge in Mabul, we mixed around with the people to understand them better and they seem to accept us, too.

"In future, we hope to get to know the needs of the people here and engage the local community, agencies and universities on activities related to marine life such as corals planting."

Besides underwater and beach cleanup, the group which was represented by club secretary Nur Eliana Ghazali and Lahad Datu branch staff also contributed donations in-kind for five hardcore poor families in the district.