Dear Friends,
This week we managed to do one Virtual Assembly Talk for Pasir Ris Secondary (1000pax) and another CSR program for Colliers International. There were 16 staff from Colliers doing waterways cleanup on foot and they picked up 40kg of litter, while there were also another 11 staff who did cleanup on bicycles and picked up 8 kg of litter (see photos). Considering we have full-time cleaners in this park and the activity was no more than 1.5hours, there is still a lot
of public litter being found. We are not a Clean City but a Cleaned City- cleaned by professional cleaners!
During this week, the regular weekday patrol at Punggol Waterways was canceled due to the unfavorable weather. There were 3 members who turned up for duty, and they did some housekeeping in the office at Pontoon instead. On Saturday morning, the Kallang Patrol was also canceled due to the heavy rain although we had about 9 members present. However,
some members did manage to go out for a brief boat patrol (including 2 doing orientation) after the rain stopped. They did rescue a pigeon from water (see photos). In the afternoon, the weekend Punggol team went out to patrol when it was drizzling: 2 members plus 2 new members on boat and 5 members on bike (see photos). The water was very clean on that day, only 0.5 kg of litter was picked up from the water. But there was a loose floating boom near Jewel Bridge, not covering the drain (see photo). On the other hand, bike patrol picked up 10kg of litter, mostly plastics, empty cans, beer bottles, leftover food, and five masks (5 surgical masks and 1 reusable mask). Those trash were discarded under the shelter of the wall fountain, near lamp post E11-1/T103 and at the bottom of the pavilion opp boardwalk (see photos). Bird dropping sighted everywhere under Punggol Road Bridge, and some fresh rice was found on the bench nearby, indicating feeding of birds (see photos). Other than picking up litter, the bike patrol also noticed toppled trees at the Wave Bridge, a loose metal strip of the staircase near the wall fountain, and overgrown grass at lamp post SSB-1/29 (see photos). A total of 10 PMD sighted during this patrol- most appear not to conform to new regulations but we are not able to do much to assist LTA. Strongly suggest more patrols done by LTA.
On Sunday morning, the weather was pleasant, windy, and cloudy. In total, 20 members turned up for duty on Sunday morning at Kallang. There were 3 new members doing bike orientation and 4 new members doing boat orientation. Together with 11 existing members, they conducted bike patrols in 2 groups and boat patrols using two boats, plus another two members did gardening (see photos). The two boat patrols went towards Singapore River and Geylang River respectively and picked up litter along the way. Boat group 1 picked up 6kg of litter from the Singapore River area and boat group 2 picked up 7kg of litter from the Geylang River area (see photos). Bike group 1 moved towards Singapore Flyer first. The water and the grassland near Duck Tour Launching Jetty was very dirty (see photos). Further down the road, members spotted one shared bike parked at the Jubilee Bridge and locked, they carried the bike closer to the side of the road for public safety (see photo). In total, bike group 1 picked up 2kg of litter, mostly plastics, cans, and tissues, and 4 pieces of used masks. Bike Group 2 started patrol at Kallang Park Connector. The area from Kallang Park Connector down to Kallang Riverside Park was quiet and clean, few litter picked up and disposed of. Some used rollers and poles were found and brought back to WWS for recycling in our garden. They spotted very dirty water at Sungei Geylang near Mountbatten road and rubbish were spotted along the assigned routes (see photo). They picked up 4kg of litter, mostly cans and plastics, and 6 pieces of masks during this patrol.
In the afternoon, we sighted an unauthorized orange boat on the shores of the Kallang Basin. We believe they were testing the boat earlier. (see photos). Reported to PUB.
In the afternoon, 5 members of the Jurong team and 3 new members did one bike patrol and one boat patrol at Jurong Lake (see photo). The water was quite clean and not much litter along the whole routes, only 0.5 kg in total and no mask spotted. Bike patrol also found the garden was generally clean, only 1 kg of litter picked up. Along the way, they spotted two overflowed rubbish bins near lamp post WN 2-5 L1S2 T1 N3 and most of the bins were full (see photos). They also found plenty of cigarette butts at the rest shelter WN1-4LS1 T7N1, however the garden should be smoking free (see photos). Strongly suggest that NParks increase surveillance in the evening.
