Our History

The 'Waterways Watch' is a special volunteer group tasked to bring people together to monitor, restore and protect the aesthetics of our waterways. It is an independent group of volunteers working towards the same objective as other green groups however concentrating more on our waterways with an identity of its own and led by a committee of volunteers.

Introduction

The clean-up of the six rivers and canals namely: the Singapore River, Kallang River, Geylang River, Whampoa River, Pelton Canal and Rochor Canal took place some ten years ago (1977-1987). It removed the major sources of polution which include: farm waste, sewage, illegal disposal of waste water from street hawkers, vegetable wholesalers and industries.

Current Situation

Although the rivers and canals are now biologically clean and alive, problem such as littering and illegal disposal of waste still exists. Our current measure to protect the aesthetics of the rivers is the installation of vertical gratings at selected outlet drains and floatbooms at strategic locations in the urban rivers and canals. This, however, does not stop pollution.

The best way of stopping pollution is at its source. But such sources of pollution are landbased and widespread which includes areas such as: HDB estates, food establishments, wet markets, bin centres, trade premises and commercial building. It would require extensive operations to comb the island to identify these sources of pollution. The government cannot do this alone. We should form partnership with the community to identify such sources of pollution and propose possible solutions to stop it.

Target Groups

• Water sport bodies such as wakeboarding and scuba-diving associations, yacht, sailing and angling clubs
• Outdoor adventure clubs
• Private sector (especially businesses located along the waterways)
• Grassroots organizations (Citizens' Consultative Committees,Community Development Councils, Resident Committees)
• Primary & secondary schools, junior colleges, Singapore, Republic, Temasek, Ngee Ann and Nanyang Polytechnics, SMU, NUS and NTU, and also the Institute of Technical Education (ITE)
• Green volunteers
• Green groups and NGOs
• Any other interested groups (local or foreign)