River Monster!
Dear Friends,
It’s another week here at WWS. Lately, as young students as young as 5-6 years old join us for our experiential learning programme, they were introduced to a fictional character called the “River Monster”, a creature that feeds on rubbish and grows bigger the more it eats. Even though it is fictional, the reality is closer than we think. Could we humans be the actual River Monster? We had a student who was so excited to see the otters, and was suddenly dumbfounded when he saw the cute animals jumping and frolicking in an area filled with rubbish. He asked “Why are the otters swimming in the rubbish?”. Sadly, we could only return with the question, “Who do you think threw the rubbish there?” No prizes for guessing who.
Waterways Watch Society has been trying to fight this River Monster, but it has never truly disappeared. Even though our volunteer strength increases, what it does is only exposes the true, unimaginable extent of our issue here in Singapore. Today’s selfish and entitled attitudes are definitely breeding monsters, and we hope institutions will collaborate and instill values within our next generation to prevent our futures from being destroyed.
Interesting observation from Pang Sua team this week sightings green algae in the drain waters, rushing water from upstream (later told it was PUB cleaning) and first time seeing Otters in Pang Sua!! We also welcome Thomas, who joined us for the first time.
Summary of activities conducted over this week:
- CSR & VIA
- 4 CSR programmes – Bank of Singapore, Goodera, Discover Global Network, National Heritage Board
- 3 VIA programme – Greenwood Primary School, Singapore American School (2 sessions)
- Total assisting volunteers – 51
- Total rubbish collected – 253kg
- Member Patrols
- 5 Boat patrol – 2 Marina, 2 Punggol, 1 Jurong
- 3 Bike patrol – 2 Marina, 1 Punggol
- 3 Gardening/Maintenance/Boat Training – 2 Marina, 1 Punggol
- 1 Foot – Pang Sua
- Total assisting volunteers – 61
- Total rubbish collected – 71kg
ACTIVITIES AND REPORT
1. Educational Programmes
2. Volunteer Patrols & Activities
a. Marina
b. Punggol
c. Lakeside
d. Pang Sua Pond
e. Yishun Pond
| No patrol |