Grassroots project positions campus as sustainability testbed

A university in Malaysia has added a new dimension to higher education, encouraging a multi-disciplinary team of students to set up a mini-non-governmental organisation that works with the local community to promote environmental protection.

Around a decade ago the University of Malaya (UM) set up a grassroots organisation known as Water Warriors, a “mini-NGO within the university to carry out environmental action”, Dr Fung Hon Ngen, UM’s deputy executive director of development, research, and innovation and a lecturer in innovative systems, told University World News.

“They cleaned up the university lake under the banner of the Water Warriors. They promoted zero waste, so they were working on composting the waste coming out of the university,” Ngen said.

The bottom-up Water Warriors initiative, linking students to the local community, started in 2013 with an outreach programme to build public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the urban campus southwest of Kuala Lumpur and involving the community in basic monitoring, a term known as “citizen science”.

The pioneering work of the Water Warriors, which later led to the Living Labs initiative, helps the university address sustainable development goals (SDGs). A major project focused on Tasik Varsiti, a man-made lake built when UM was established in 1949. Over the years, the lake’s water quality had deteriorated as campus buildings expanded.

“Water Warriors emphasises both research and community engagement,” said Dr Zeeda Fatimah Mohamad, director of the UM Sustainable Development Centre (UMSDC). “Water Warriors is often invited to enhance classroom learning by integrating Tasik Varsiti as an open classroom for experiential outdoor learning or supporting subject-specific lessons.

“These engagements allow students to apply theoretical knowledge in practical, real-world settings,” she said.

“Community-based projects often feature training programmes and encourage active participation from local residents in research and environmental campaigns,” noted Mohamad, adding that Water Warriors established the Inspirasi Kawa, roughly translated as “Inspiration Café”, for local youth to meet on environmental issues.

“This club provides comprehensive training in citizen science and conservation efforts, empowering young participants to contribute actively to environmental sustainability,” Mohamad said.

The lake as the heart of the community

The Tasik Varsiti revival project began in 2013. Students and staff engaged over months in research on sources of pollution and water quality monitoring, both in the lab and through citizen science.

Mohamad told University World News: “One of our first initiatives involved gathering citizen science data on water quality and presenting it to university leadership.

Additional efforts included organising community clean-ups and employing the so-called ‘heartware’ approach by sharing the lake's history and community-shared values to engage university leaders and inspire investment in its restoration.”

Through these efforts the lake was preserved as part of the area’s natural heritage and became the heart of UM, as intended with the ‘heartware’ approach. It is used as a recreation site where students can swim and kayak.

The lake is also an open classroom for field study and biodiversity monitoring.

“Universities can play a pivotal role in promoting sustainable water practices, both on campus and in surrounding communities,” Mohamad maintains.

“By conducting research and leading by example through resource-efficient campus practices, universities can demonstrate sustainable water management strategies,” she explained.

The interdisciplinary project involved researchers and students from different university departments.

Recently, the Water Warriors team published the Water Handbook: Sustainable Consumption and Conservation for Individuals and Organisations in collaboration with Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Malaysia’s leading water services provider.

Living Labs

In 2015, Water Warriors gained greater institutional support, evolving into one of UM’s pioneering Living Labs.

The Living Labs approach positions the university as a testbed, with Tasik Varsiti serving as a real-world laboratory where students, faculty, and the local community collaborate on environmental projects.

More recently, in 2021, UM set up the Eco-Campus Living Labs Grants Scheme under UMSDC, awarding annual grants to students and staff for projects lasting nine to 12 months. The aim is to embed research and innovation activities into real-world sustainability projects to minimise harmful environmental impacts on the campus.

The grants are awarded under thematic areas such as energy management, transport system management, and green procurements.

A second thematic area is the circular economy. Living Labs develops models to reduce material use, and redesign materials, products, and services to be less resource-intensive as well as recapturing “waste” to generate new materials.

A third thematic area includes projects that promote UM’s aspiration to become a carbon-neutral campus by 2050.

The grants “provide us with some funding to carry out some of the projects”, explained Ngen. “We are only able to see what is in front of us. We only notice problems in our own field, or we only know of these issues that pertain to our own daily lives. Now we can try a more networked type of framework to solve problems in the community in different parts of Malaysia.”

Community empowerment

Water Warriors member Nuratiqah Mohamad Norpi, a social research officer in UM’s Department of Research Management, said the project designed various activities to empower local communities, like the Friends of Taman Aman (FoTA), an NGO that acts as a bridge between the local authority and residents.

In an article in the local Star newspaper in May 2024, she was quoted as saying the project included capacity building, partnership with local authorities, and engaging with FoTA to promote the citizen scientist concept to address pollution in Lake Aman, in Taman Aman, Petaling Jaya.

The project’s aim was to enhance understanding of freshwater conservation and the impacts of cyanobacterial (dense and sometimes toxic) blooms and microplastics.

Like the Tasik Varsiti project, the Aman project “will also foster a sense of ownership and responsibility among the local community”, Norpi was quoted as saying, adding that thanks to the activities, FoTA and citizen scientists would be able to independently monitor the lake’s water quality, with the research team providing guidance and support whenever necessary.