Dear Friends,
Happy Deepavali to all our Hindu friends. This week was a relatively quiet week. We did one CSR Bike Waterway Cleanup for 20 participants from Salesforce, they picked up 35kg in total (see photos). We also gave an online assembly talk to 39 classes of West Spring Primary School (about 1400 students), and did a Virtual WWE@Lower Seletar and Virtual WWE@Pang Sua Pond for 3 classes respectively (about 200 students in total).
On Wednesday, 2 members from Punggol Team did housekeeping and repair mooring ropes on both boats. Since this Saturday was Deepavali Day, there was no patrol at both Kallang and Punggol. Instead, 16 volunteer leaders came to the Kallang office for training on conducting orientation for new members (see photos). 4 Garden crew came down as well.
On Sunday morning, the weather was good and patrols were conducted at Marina Reservoir. A total of 26 members turned up, including 12 existing members who came for patrol, 5 members did gardening, 2 new members doing bike orientation, and 7 new members doing boat orientation (2 families) (see photos). They were divided into 2 bike patrol groups and 2 boat patrol groups. The first bike patrol group went towards the Singapore Flyer, cross the Barrage, and returned to the office by passing Sportshub. Some rubbish were picked up along the park from the WWS office till the Singapore Flyer. They found a chunk of plastic bottles at the embankment near the pontoon in front of the Singapore Flyer (see photos). They continued picking up litter along the way, and the total weight they collected was 4.5kg plus 3 masks. The second bike patrol group headed towards Kallang Park Connector then went to Jalan Batu. They found that the area under the fishing zone jetty next to the Sir Arthur Bridge and the area under Merdeka Bridge are hot spots for littering (see photos). Opposite the public toilet in the Kallang Park Connector, one group of people was using fire to cook food on the grass. Members told them to switch off and informed them cooking is not allowed in the park, they complied. Bike patrol group 2 collected 8kg of litter which was mainly plastic and beer can, and 6 masks. The first boat patrol reported the waters were generally clean, most of the trash fished out of the water was at the mouth of Geylang River. The estimated total trash collected was 7kg. The second boat went to the Singapore River and Kim Seng area. They picked up litter around the vicinity of Marina Bay Send and Merlion. The Singapore River was overall clean, but they recovered an abandoned child bicycle near the edge of the riverbank, at lamppost S160 (see photos). The total litter collected was 2kg, mainly plastic bags, and bottles. In total, Sunday patrol groups at Marina picked up 21.5kg of litter and 9 masks.
One volunteer member came for Admin Orientation to assist our two regular weekend staff.
In the afternoon, 8 members went to Jurong Lakeside Garden for bike patrol (see photos). They spotted one fisherman fishing in front of the WWS office, went fishing at the view deck before members approach. Reported to Barrage and PUB announced no fishing at viewing deck through the speaker a few minutes later, effective. Patrol members spotted rubbish flowing into Jurong lake after heavy rain, despite a floating boom installed in the outlet of the drain (see photos). One group of bike patrol cycled outside Jurong lake’s main entrance to check out where the rubbish flows from- Jurong river flow to Jurong Lake. Lots of rubbish (about 11kg) collected by this group, from Jurong Lake’s main entrance to WWS office, mostly plastic and cans, two glass bottles, and found used women pad. The other bike patrol group pick thrash on side of the lake. A lot of thrash noticeable in the middle of the lake after thunderstorm but not reachable by land. This group picked up 2kg of trash and 3 masks.
It is unfortunate that we had to cancel Punggol Kayak Cleanup due to bad weather. A total of 13 kayakers n 4 boaters waited for one hour before deciding to cancel the duty.
