Dear Friends,
Last week we had no physical programme due to the COVID-19 situation. On Saturday, one of our senior members (Wai Tong) participated in the UNLEASH Hackathon Panel discussion and shared our story with 67 young people from around the world.
Waterways Watch last week launched our Little Steps Donation Drive via Giving.sg to help raise $15,000. This is in partnership with TOTEBOARD and their dollar for dollar sponsorship. We are pleased to report that this campaign started well and we have so far raised over $5,000. We thank all our many supporters and members including PUB Water Catchment staff for their support.
Over the weekend, we continued our small-scale members’ activities at Kallang/Marina, Punggol and Jurong Lakeside. At Kallang, 4 members came for two bike patrols and 8 members did 4 boat patrols, plus 1 member did gardening on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday morning at Kallang, the bike patrol picked up 17 used masks and 3kg of litter around Marina Reservoir, consisting generally of food packs and drink bottles. The hotspots were still seen at the embankments in front of Singapore Flyer and areas under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge (see photos). One shared bike was abandoned on the grass at Kallang Riverside Park, opposite Stadium (see photos). The Singapore River, Geylang River and main water body of Marina Reservoir was quite clean, only 5kg of litter was collected from these areas. However, the Kallang River Basin area was dirty with lots of plastic bags floating down the stream and 35kg of litter was picked up from this area alone. The boat patrol teams spotted 1 illegal fishing at Singapore River but the fisherman left before members approached, and spotted another 3 illegal fishing at Geylang River with no engagement. Another 2 members did a boat patrol at Punggol also on Saturday morning (see photos) and 3 did housekeeping on Wed. The Punggol Waterway Park was not so crowded and the water was very clean and only 2kg of litter was picked up. Some tree branches covered the waterways and were removed immediately by NPark after reporting (see photos).
On Sunday morning, at kallang/marina 2 members cycled towards the Stadium area and reported lots of plastic bags and styrofoam rubbish floating in the water along Kallang Riverside Park (see photos). They advised one young lady fishing illegally near the exercising ground to move to the fishing zone and she complied. They spotted a shared bike abandoned under the Merdeka Bridge. The patrol route was relatively clean and they picked up 2.5kg of litter plus 5 masks (see photos). Another 4 members did two boat patrola up the Singapore River which was generally clean although some litter was picked up from Kallang River. The two boats picked up 6.5kg of litter, mainly plastic bags and 1 mask. There were 2 illegal fishermen spotted along Kallang River and Singapore River respectively. At the Kallang Riverside park, one lady was seen letting the dog play in the water. Members advised her not to allow the pet into the reservoir and she complied (see photos). In addition, lots of plastic bags, bottles and styrofoam cups were found floating in the water in front of the WWS office. The member came for gardening and the admin went out to pick up 8kg of litter. In the afternoon, 3 members did housekeeping and boat patrol at Jurong Branch. The Jurong Lakeside area was very clean, but patrol did drag back one long floating log and placed it on the bench top outside the office to dry and see if it can be used as a drift wood exhibit in future. (see photos).
