A River Care Education Centre (RCEC) has been established by GAB Foundation and GEC together with JPS Selangor in 2009 in Desa Mentari for the Sungai Way community. The centre is part of the W.A.T.E.R Project which acts as a one-stop resource centre for everyone to learn more about water and rivers. The RCEC in Desa Mentari is currently maintained and operated by the Sahabat Sungai Way Community. The local community was given a privilege to utilise its facilities for their benefit. The centre is also open to students and public who wish to utilise it as a resource centre for river rehabilitation research.

Currently, with support from JPS Selangor, the project was granted a new cabin located within JPS’s Sungai Penchala Information Centre which also act as a one-stop resource centre. This RCEC is equipped with mini lab, mini library and mini office. Beside that, RCEC also serve as center for rainwater harvesting system, recycling, and used cooking oil collection. The River Care Education Centre has been visited by many communities, schools and media both locally and internationally. The ongoing activities at the centre are recycling used cooking oil for biodiesel, demonstration of soap and candle making and educate public of harvesting rainwater for activities such as watering plants, washing floors, and flushing toilets.

The centre has three main sections to offer the public (mini office, mini library and mini laboratory). It will be opened to public on Saturday and Sunday from 9.00am to 1.00pm and Monday to Friday based on special request made by anyone/public.

There are currently two existing RCECs, Penchala River Information Centre and the newly launched Sungai Penchala Open Classroom in 2015.

Penchala River Information Centre

List of activities conducted at the RCEC thus far:

5th July 2015: A total of 40 kids (aged 4 to 7 years) from St Francis Church, Petaling Jaya were accompanied by their parents and given a talk on water source safeguarding in addition to water quality monitoring and 4R2C concepts.

20th September 2015: River Care We Care training was given to 40 students from SEGI College. The college is known to be keen in environmental activities and students are exposed to river water quality monitoring, composting as well as candle and soap making.

8th May 2016: River Care We Care training was given to 20 Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) students. UThe training included activities of visiting the Information Centre, RIVER Ranger training and also SMART Ranger training on composting, garbage enzyme and making soap ad candle from used cooking oil.

22nd August 2016: RIVER Ranger training for Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) staffs from 12 states in Malaysia involving study tours to Penchala Information Centre and Community Centre in Sungai Way.

19th December 2016: Educational visit by Komuniti Island Ranger Sri Pangkor (KIRSP), an active waste management community group from Pangkor Island.