Malaysia Quarries Association helps plant 600 trees

MQA joins local residents and municipal council in tree-planting project north of Kuala Lumpur

AROUND 70 people from local residential areas, Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) and the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur branch of the Malaysia Quarries Association (MQA) recently took part in a tree-planting project along the main road in Taman Bukit Indah, north of Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.

Almost 600 syzygium campahulatum trees were planted along the road, which is used by lorries from Sungai Buloh Quarry as they transport granite products to market. As the trees grow and fill out, they will shelter residents from the sun and help to dissipate noise, dust and exhaust fumes.

MPS president Datuk Zainal said the Council had allocated RM150,000 for its tree-planting project this year. ‘We have exceeded our 60,000 tree target set by the state government, with 109,000 planted last year, and we aim to repeat that success this year.’

MQA Selangor and Kuala Lumpur branch chairman Yap Soon Huat added that the project had sent out a message about environmental awareness. ‘This is our commitment to the community and we want to do more in this respect. It is the first time that MQA has collaborated with MPS on the project and we have allocated RM30,000 for this scheme,’ he said.

‘We also hope that our small contribution to this campaign will help complement the government’s effort to plant 26 million trees by 2014.’

Malaysia Quarries Association is a national body representing 80% of the quarry operators in Malaysia. There are currently around 300 active quarry operators in the country.