KUALA LUMPUR: Actress Maya Karin takes her new role as the ambassador for the Federal Territories Ministry’s River of Life project seriously.

The 39-year-old celeb is excited to carry out her duty to remind people to conserve and take care of our river system and not to simply treat it like a convenient rubbish dump.

“We must appreciate our rivers. They’re not there for us to throw garbage. Rivers are rivers. Rubbish dumpsters are where we dispose our garbage,” she was quoted in a news report yesterday.

The actress, who was recently chosen by the ministry as the ambassador for the project for a year, also felt honoured when her efforts of preserving and conserving the environment all this time had been noticed by the authorities, and that her recent engagement was not just because the ministry needed someone pretty to be the face of the campaign.

“This project is now about 80 per cent complete and we do realise how there is still a lack of awareness among the public. The government spends RM500,000 a month in order to maintain the river system and has allocated RM6 million per year for this purpose. All these efforts would go down the drain if we choose not to change our mindset towards our rivers and their cleanliness,” she said.