Dear Friends
Waterways Watch Society wishes all of you a merry Christmas.
This week we conducted 3 programs in total: CSR Bike Waterway Cleanup for Salesforce (25pax), CSR Kayak Waterway Cleanup for Desmo Owners Club (20pax), and VIA Kayak Cleanup for Ngee Ann Polytechnic (20pax). A total of 94kg of litter was collected during the programs. There was 1 program postponed due to weather on Friday.
The Punggol team carried out regular maintenance and did a boat patrol with 4 members on Wednesday. They found plenty of small pieces of litter in the water. Patrol was cut short due to the rain.
On Saturday morning, we have a smaller patrol group with 11 members and 2 new members doing bike orientation: 6 members went for boat patrol and 7 members went for bike patrol (see photos). The bike patrol groups moved in the same direction but in separate groups with social distancing. The patrol route around Marina Reservoir was generally clean, they picked up about 5kg of litter which was mainly bottles, cans, plastic bags, and 2 masks. The boat patrol group went to the Singapore River and the water looked generally clean. They picked up 3kg from the water.
In the afternoon, at Punggol, 4 members plus one new member did one bike patrol (see photo). They reported one damaged PUB valve system near the fountain wall and water ponding at the lamppost E7-D/W-208 (see photos). The patrol group picked up 5 kg of litter along the Punggol Waterway Park, containing plastics, glass bottles and empty cigarette boxes. They also picked up 8 masks and 1 Tracetogether token (see photos). There was plenty of trash on the slope below blk 678c (see photos).
On Sunday morning, we applied new practice for conducting new member orientation. Bike patrol orientations and boat patrol orientations were conducted back to back. In total, we completed orientation for 17 new members in groups of 4-5 (see photos). The orientation aims to introduce Waterways Watch Society’s mission and operation, and let new members understand h7ow transformation of the land use in Kallang and Singapore River region interact with our environment and waterways. The orientation was not focused on picking up litter, but boat orientation still picked up 6kg of litter.
Other than that, there were 10 members conducting regular bike patrol in 2 groups (see photos). The two bike patrol groups patrolled along Kallang Park Connector, but one group crossed Marina Barrage and ended at Asian Civilisation Museum, the other group went to Geylang Park Connector and Indoor Stadium. The areas were generally clean, however there was lots of rubbish floating along the shore of Dragon Boat Beach and lots of cigarette butts near the bus stop number 81099, near Indoor Stadium (see photos). In total, 12kg of litter and 11 masks was collected by Sunday bike patrol groups.
In addition, we still see groups of more than 5 gatherings in the park (see photos). While authorities are doing their best, the flouting of this rule is still obvious. This will be an even more challenging problem when we go into Phase #3. We need to be strict and serious in this monitoring.
On Sunday afternoon, there were 5 members carrying out bike patrol and boat patrol at Jurong Lake respectively (see photos). The water of Jurong Lake was generally clean. However, despite patrol ending early due to heavy rain, they still managed to pick up 2kg of trash (plastic and metal cans). The bike patrol also picked up mostly plastic litter at the view deck near WWS office. They spotted one construction metal rod protruding from the grass and cannot be removed. Hence, they tied a red plastic bag around the metal rod to caution the public (see photos).
