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Economy

Coastal clean-up programme launches at Pantai Balok with 100 volunteers

A team of 100 volunteers fanned out across five kilometres of Casuarina-shaded shoreline at Pantai Balok on 22 August, each armed with gloves, scales and clipboards.

Source: The Rakyat Post · August 22, 2026 at 6:28 PM · AI-assisted report

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Coastal clean-up programme launches at Pantai Balok with 100 volunteers
Image: therakyatpost.com

SINGAPORE, 23 AUGUST 2026 —

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A team of 100 volunteers fanned out across five kilometres of Casuarina-shaded shoreline at Pantai Balok on 22 August, each armed with gloves, scales and clipboards.

Market Impact

The year-long initiative, COMB-AT, is a data-driven beach-combing programme that weighs, sorts and records every piece of litter removed from the sand. According to OSK Group, the granular data will build baseline evidence on marine litter patterns and help policymakers target coastal waste interventions more precisely.

Dato’ Shaharuddin Abu Sohot, Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, officiated the launch alongside Tourism Pahang, Kuantan City Council and SWCorp, the national waste management body acting as technical partner. “Sustainability cannot be achieved by government alone,” he told reporters. “It requires private industry, local authorities, the tourism sector and the community working together.”

COMB-AT is positioned as the coastal extension of OSK Group’s wider circular-economy strategy. In 2025 the group diverted 198,669 kg of metal, 155,356 kg of paper and 784,437 kg of plastics from landfills—more than double the 2024 volume.

Dato’ Saiful Bahri Zainuddin, OSK Group Executive Director, said the programme moves sustainability from spreadsheets to shoreline. “It cannot remain confined to reports; it must be experienced and acted upon,” he said. “The data will move us from simply responding to the problem to understanding it better.”

The beach in front of the resort has itself undergone a quiet reinvention. Originally opened in 1998 as Swiss-Garden Beach Resort Kuantan, the property spent two decades as an East-Coast favourite before a pandemic-era overhaul that enlarged rooms, overhauled lobbies and reimagined restaurants. In March the resort earned five-star status from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, becoming the first in the group to carry the Swiss-Grand luxury banner.

It now holds a 4.4-star Google rating from more than 10,600 reviews, draws visitors from Europe, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and on 9 August won first runner-up at Hari Landskap Negara for sustainable coastal preservation.

Balok’s five-kilometre curve is backed by Casuarina trees, roughly 15 km north of Kuantan. The name comes from the Malay word for timber logs—balak—echoing Thai traders who floated Cengal logs down the Sungai Balok to merchant ships as far back as the 1940s.

The shoreline is internationally recognised as a top-ten windsurfing and kiteboarding destination, drawing professional athletes every monsoon season for the annual Balok Wind Challenge, yet remains far less crowded than the commercialised Teluk Cempedak nearby.

Along the beach road, visitors can watch live batik dyeing at the Natural Batik Village for RM15, rent ATVs at Pusat Rekreasi Air Balok or book a beachfront wedding. Ten kilometres north lie the black-rock formations of Pantai Batu Hitam; eight kilometres south, the traditional sands of Pantai Beserah; and 45 km up the coast, the turtle shores of Pantai Cherating.

Related: Google · Singapore

Reporting based on The Rakyat Post. Figures and claims are subject to revision as the story develops. DomainFork publishes editorial context, not investment advice — see our editorial standards.