Dear Friends,
It has been a hectic week for Waterways Watch and it appears that this will continue for the next few weeks. We conducted 2 Waterways Watch Explorer (WWE) programmes at Lorong Halus Wetland (LAHLAH) for Punggol Cove Primary School (177 pax), sponsored by Pratt and Whitney. We also did one WWE programme sponsored by North West Community Development Council (NWCDC) at Lower Seletar Reservoir for 38 primary five students from Ahmad Ibrahim Primary School. WWS also conducted two Marina Waterways Clean-up programme sponsored by NWCDC for Woodlands Ring Primary School (240 pax). WWS also had two CSR programmes (Kayak and Pedal-boat) with Salesforce (50 pax) and a CSR kayak programme for WWF (40 pax). Our hectic week ended with our participation as tour guides on the River Cruise Boat Tour for attendees of SIWW 2018 (6 members involved). During the week, we also had five new enquiries from corporates and small groups.
Dear friends,
It was a fulfilling week for WWS. This week, we organised an Enviro-wareness camp for 28 ITE East College students from 25th June 2018 (Monday) to 27th June 2018 (Wednesday). We also organised 4 learning journey sessions (Waterways Watch Explorer (WWE)) to Lower Seletar Reservoir for Ahmad Ibrahim Primary School (147 pax), and 1 learning journey to Lorong Halus Wetland for Punggol Cove Primary School (60 pax). However, due to the rainy weather this week, participants from Levi were unable to proceed with the kayak and boat CSR Programme, hence we proceed with wet weather plans instead. Levi has requested for another date for their CSR as they are very keen to participate. Our CEO, Eugene Heng, also attended an interview with students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (School of Film and Media Studies). We also did 6 safety boat services this week.
Our weekend patrol had a total of 24 members at Marina and Punggol, inclusive of 5 members on orientation. Our weekend patrol on Sunday ended with a pot-luck lunch supplied by members. On Sunday afternoon, 7 members attended a training session by one of our members, Mr Cheng, about personal effectiveness. We will be having another session on the 15th of July. Thank you Cheng.
This week, we still saw lots of litter of plastic origin in our waters, and also on land (see photos). During the week, our volunteers engaged a total of 6 groups of fishermen who were fishing outside the designated fishing zones. Among those, 3 men were suspected of casting nets for fishing but when approached, they kept the net quickly. Others engaged show understanding and complied, moving to the designated fishing zones to fish. There are a total of 20 pax engagements for anti-littering. There were no smoking engagements this week.
The weekend had 30 members performing duties at Marina and Punggol, including a night patrol on Saturday evening. There was a minor accident of one of our bike patrol members but nothing serious (he was trying to avoid a shared bike blocking his pathway). We continue to sight the indiscriminate parking and irresponsible disposal of shared bikes all over Kallang and Marina area and we really hope that these bikes will be cleared quickly. OFO Bikes that we come across within our area of operation are collected and stationed together, with the help of our volunteers. Illegal fishing continues to be monitored and our night patrol team has engaged quite a few this round. Most of them were fishing with live bait and complied when told. A total amount of 133.17kg of litter was collected this week. There were 15 anti-littering engagements over this weekend and no engagement for smoking.
We have also been experiencing some mechanical problems with two of our older boats (WWS #1 and WWS#2). We probably will have to do some detailed maintenance work on them soon.
During the week, we were invited to join NParks with SPF and LTA on their night operations on PMDs and PEBs users at Punggol Waterways (see photos).
