Dear Friends,
Last week was another slow week. We only did 2 virtual programmes for Credit Suisse (55pax) and new citizens from Empact (48 pax) respectively. A total of 13 members did 5 patrols, and 9 members did maintenance and gardening work.
Over the week, our CEO Mr. Eugene attended the second zoom sharing with OBS (Coney Island). On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, we organized two briefing sessions for our members who are interested to help in facilitating programmes. There were 24 members attending sessions for the land and boat cleanup session and 12 members attending the session for kayak cleanup (see photos). During the briefing, we shared with members about the history of Kallang development and Singapore’s water story, and also how to facilitate the cleanup programme. On Saturday afternoon, President Joo Kek and CEO Eugene held a virtual members get together session with 21 members attending (see photos). The electric engine training continued last week with 5 drivers coming on Friday and 3 drivers coming on Saturday (see photos).
Waterways Watch Society is happy to have achieved the Silver Award for the Happy Garden and a Gold Award for the Biodiversity Pond. This Bi-annual competition organised by Nparks is open to all Community Garden Sites. Well done Team Garden. Thank you Jamie, Chia Chia and Su Jiuen for a successful video submission.
On Wednesday, a total of 7 members came to Punggol Branch for maintenance and observation patrol (see photos). They washed the pontoon gangway and did boat checks. No patrol was done due to heavy rains. However, members noticed large patches of algae found in the waterway around the Oasis Terrace (see photos). The muddy water was found to be discharged from the drain next to our office after heavy rain. On Thursday morning, 3 members came down to the Jurong Branch. They started all 3 boats, replaced the old padlock at the pontoon and did monthly internal inspections. They went for one round of simple observation patrol and noted a few pieces of plastic waste along the water’s edge (see photos).
On Saturday morning, 6 members did 2 boat patrols at Kallang HQ. They picked up plastic bottles and metal cans floating outside MBS (about 3 kg) and the Singapore River was clean. The patrol was shortened due to thunderstorms near noon time. There was no patrol at Punggol in the afternoon.
On Sunday morning, 5 members did 2 boat patrols at Kallang (see photos). They picked up lots of plastic litter at Kallang River, near the Sport Hub and Singapore River. A total of 7kg litter was collected by the two boat patrols, including 18 cans, 13 plastic bottles, 8 plastic cups, 1 glass bottle and 2 masks, the rest were all plastic bags (see photos). Members also noticed many groups of picnikers gathering in the park and were not complying to social distancing measures, even in the late evening (see photos). In addition, 2 members did maintenance at Jurong Branch for the whole day.
Waterways Watch is concerned with the number of public activities not complying with Present SMM- Cycling in groups of 8-10 in Kallang Park, social gathering, eating and enjoying groups of 3 to 9 (see photos). More surveillance and monitoring should be carried out.
