Dear Friends,
OVERVIEW
“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
Over the weekend at two locations, Pang Sua Pond and its adjacent park and at Lakeside Garden water, we saw examples of the ‘Good, the Bad and Ugly sights’ of our City in the Garden. The ‘Good sight’ was a result of our cleaners doing an excellent job of keeping the park clean as shown by the sparkling clean gazebos (the BBQ pit areas). On the other hand we saw the ‘Bad and Ugly scenes’ at the overhead bridge plant troughs across the Bukit Panjang Road, and the high number of plastic bottles among other litter picked up at the inaccessible water edges of Lakeside Garden.
Frankly, such sights and situations are not unusual. From the clean-up activities and programmes conducted by Waterways Watch daily, statistics have shown that much much more work needs to be done. If we have the cleaners to clean the place, it will be clean. Hence, the ‘Good, the Bad and Ugly sights’ will always be there if there is no concerted conscious effort by and from the people to want to keep our environment clean and safe. It will always be a daunting task for the authorities and the relevant agencies including our volunteers. Nevertheless, we will continue to do our best and lead by example to spread the message of keeping our environment and waterways clean and safe.
We need to publicise the impact of litter and littering on the environment especially in the area of hygiene and safety (preventing diseases). We need to educate and enforce proper social behaviour. It pains us each time to share such disturbing photos but facts and the truth should not be avoided. Are we a clean or ‘ugly’ city?
In summary, the following activities were done for this week:
- We conducted 7 CSR programmes comprising 2 Foot clean-ups, 1 Boat clean-up, 2 Kayak clean-ups and 3 Pedal Boat clean-ups and they were attended by 159 participants, and together they collected a total of 301 kg of litter.
- This week a total of 109 members were involved for CSR/VIA programmes, talk, patrols, administration, housekeeping duties and training and, the total trash collected = 459 kg.
- Boat Patrol. A total of 5 Boat patrols were carried out; 2 at Marina, 2 at Punggol and 1 at Lakeside.
- Bike Patrol. A total of 5 Bike patrols were carried out; 2 at Marina, 1 at Punggol and 2 at Lakeside.
- Foot Patrol. We conducted 1 Foot Patrol at Pang Sua.
- Pedal boat Patrol. 2 Pedal Boat patrols were conducted at Marina.
- Briefing to New Applicants. We conducted a virtual briefing to 33 new applicants.
- Physical Bike and Boat Clean Up Orientation for New Applicants. This was not conducted.
- Boat Tour for Frontline workers. We conducted a boat tour for 2 Frontliners at Marina.
ACTIVITIES AND REPORT
1. Educational Programmes
2. Volunteer Patrols & Activities
a. Marina
b. Punggol
c. Lakeside
d. Pang Sua Pond
e. Yishun Pond Patrol
