Dear Friends,
Last week was a quiet week. We did one Foot Cleanup for 16 staff from HP (see photos). All participants worked very hard under the hot weather and they picked up 38kg of litter in total. We also did a dry run with NPark for the upcoming virtual upcycling season on 24th July. We had one program with a corporate postponed. On Tuesday, we did our annual mass housekeeping at Kallang Office.
This week, members patrolled picked up 62 Masks from public parks and our reservoir waters. A disappointing sight and quite disturbing.
On Wednesday, 2 members did a boat patrol at Punggol Waterways and 1 member did a familiarization trip for a new member (see photos). The waterways were generally clean but boat patrol managed to pick about 3kg of litter, mainly plastic bottles and cans. On Thursday, one member did recce at Bedok Reservoir. He picked up about 1kg of litter from the park area, including 9 masks, cans and plastic bottles.
On Saturday, regular volunteer patrol was carried out at Kallang and Punggol. There were 18 members at Kallang in total, split into 4 groups: 1 group of bike patrol (5 pax), 2 groups of boat patrol (4 pax and 3 pax), 1 group of pedal boat patrol (4 pax) and 2 admin. The hotspot on land was still the embankment in front of Singapore Flyer (see photos). They didn’t pick up much litter, only 3kg of plastics but they picked up 15 masks (see photos). The boat patrol groups patrolled at Singapore River and returned at Jiak Kim. The water of Marina Reservoir looked generally clean. In total, the two boats managed to pick up 11kg of litter and 1 mask, mostly large plastic bags, lunch boxes and cans (see photos). Last but not least, the pedal boat group picked up 10kg of plastic bags. They picked up a black canvas and 3 masks along Kallang Riverside Park near the exercise corner.
At Punggol Branch in the afternoon, 5 members did a bike and boat patrol (see photo). The Punggol Waterway Park was relatively busy with a lot of park users on Saturday afternoon. The bike patrol group reported mosquito breeding in the Wall Fountain water tank. The light and no-smoking sign next to the Wall Fountain viewing gallery was vandalized (see photos). One shared bike was left behind the Jewel Bridge toilet (see photos). The bike patrol group picked up 4kg of litter and 3 masks, including mostly plastic wastes and a few toys (see photos). The water in Punggol Waterway was slightly dirty after heavy rain with beer bottles, beer cans, plastic bags, plastic bottles and other rubbish. The boat patrol group collected 8kg in total but no masks (see photos).
In addition, 5 members did our first off site patrol at Pang Sua Pond on Saturday morning (see photos). The patrol leader briefed on the surrounding history and the team patrolled around the park and nearby HDB block. A lot of litter was trapped below the GYM area beside the park. The total litter collected was about 3kg and 4 masks.
On Sunday morning, the patrol groups at Kallang were smaller compared to Saturday. There were 5 members who went on boat patrol, 2 members did a pedal boat patrol and 4 members did garden work (see photos). The boat patrol took a route from Singapore Flyer to Boat Quay. There was a lot of floating debris in Marina Reservoir, especially near the Red Dot Design Museum after the rain in the previous night (see photos). A total of 30kg litter and 17 masks was collected. They even picked up a small live crab with fishing out litter near the Duck Tour Launching area. The pedal boat group found that Biodiversity Pond and the Dragon Boat Training Beach were clean, but the area in front of the Kallang Wave Mall was quite dirty (see photos). However, most of the trash spotted was in the main water body of the Reservoir, probably due to the rain washing. The pedal boat group picked up 15kg of litter and 5 masks. There was no sighting of illegal fishing on Sunday morning, but 2 ladies were spotted releasing live frogs or eels into Kallang Basin (see photos).
In the afternoon, 5 members did bike patrol and 3 members did a boat patrol at Jurong Lake (see photos). Before moving out for patrol, members put up national day decorations around the office (see photos). The Park area was basically clean. The bike patrol group picked up only about 1kg of litter, mainly plastic bags and plastic bottles plus 4 masks (see photos). The Jurong Lake water was also clean with only 2kg of litter and 1 mask was collected, consisting of plastic bags, cans and lunch boxes.
