Dear Friends,
It was a fantastic week for Waterways Watch. We kickstarted the week with our involvement as guides in the River Cruise Boat Tour for the ministers and delegates of the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). We also participated in the exhibition organized by the Ministry of Environmental and Water Resources (MEWR) at the SIWW.
It was a fantastic week for Waterways Watch. We kickstarted the week with our involvement as guides in the River Cruise Boat Tour for the ministers and delegates of the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). We also participated in the exhibition organized by the Ministry of Environmental and Water Resources (MEWR) at the SIWW.
Besides our participation in SIWW, four River Monster (RM) programmes were conducted over the week for Nan Hua Primary School, involving 320 students in four consecutive days. We had also organized one River Monster Junior programme for East View Primary School (56 pax), a corporate beach clean-up with the Secular Franciscan Order Church Group (21 pax, including 5 students from Temasek Polytechnic), as well as our first Marine Port Authority (MPA) Talk for 886 students at Zhong Hua Primary School and a corporate talk for Levi’s at their office. Eugene, our CEO, was invited to speak to 220 students at the Teens Conference organized by Holy Innocents High School.
32 members performed duties at Marina over the weekend, four of whom were new members doing their orientation. Unfortunately, no weekend patrols were conducted at Punggol but admin duty was done. One boat patrol was done at Punggol on a weekday by three of our members. On Sunday, we also conducted our second and final session on 7 Behaviour Habits by our member consultant, Mr Cheng (8 members attended).
Illegal fishing continues to be monitored and our patrol team engaged at least 8 fishermen over the week which includes fishing with live bait and fishing at non-fishing zone. The individuals complied when told. There were 50 anti-littering engagements over this weekend and no engagement for smoking.
We continue to sight indiscriminate parking and irresponsible disposal of shared bikes around Marina area, as well as speeding PMDs and PEBs. As we have yet to receive the authority letters from LTA, our members are unable to carry out enforcement actions. Most members involved in the Active Mobility Patrol Scheme find that the restricted authority does not empower them to to fulfil their duties as community volunteers. Besides the National Day Parade (NDP) duties, two safety boat services were conducted this week.
