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Singapore International, 9 May 05 Keeping our waterways clean --- One green group's work Written and produced by Daphne Koh This week on Eco Watch, find out more about an unusual green volunteer group. Their mission? To be our "rivers and waterways police". Welcome to the programme, I'm ... They have a green crusade. To keep the rivers, canals and all the water bodies in our sunny Singapore island clean and alive. They are the "Waterways Watch" group. The first question that may surface in people's mind is , do they actually pick up all the litter and pollution in the water with their bare hands? LPP: We actually don't look after the drains and the canals, all these drainage system actually comes under the purview of PUB, what we do is actually, we will monitor the cleanliness level of the rivers and the waterways, and observation - how much pollution it is; how dirty it is; whether it is big items that are dumped into the river - and we get all the people like the MPA to assist us. Ms Low Ping Ping, Vice-President of the Waterways Watch group in Singapore. Ms Low tells us where you can usually find these green crusaders during the weekends. LPP: We concentrate mainly in the Marina Basin, so it includes the main Singapore River, Kallang River, Geylang River, Rochor and Marina South area. What we do is that, we actually go out and patrol in boats, so we have volunteers sitting on the boats, looking out for rubbish and picking out at the same time, taking records, making observation - is it like certain areas where there is a lot of rubbish congregating; drawing references like "is it because there a park down there, there is no bins in the park down there, that's why people, they just throw into the river, or they just anyhow dispose it when the wind comes, all these gets blown into the river - these kind of observations. And yet another burning question: why volunteer for this unique job in the first place? After all, when it comes to green volunteerism, most people think of conducting recycling programmes, helping out in animal welfare homes, or raising funds for green charities. LPP: Well I guess it is a passion that they have, like keeping the environment clean, that they wanted to share in how we can spread the message and increase the awareness to the general public - let's say, you know, water is precious and that it is important to keep the waterways and the rivers clean LPP: The volunteers come from all walks of life. Like for myself, I work in a bank, we have teachers, we have businessmen, retirees, students, the passion probably come out of people who enjoy water sports. Because if you are closely linked to the water, you would want your water environment to be clean. Like canoeing, and dragon boating kind of thing. If the water is polluted, it could be a health hazard. You could get skin irritation and that wouldn't be very nice. And how are these volunteers recruited? LPP: We don't actively have a recruitment drive. Its through word-of-mouth or they become aware through some of our roadshows or exhibitions that sometimes we have in conjunction with NEA and PUB. And so they will become aware that "oh there is this society" and so they join us. And what about Ms Low herself? What made her come forth to join the Waterways Watch group? LPP: I scuba-dive and I swim. If you're a diver, and you know that clean water -that's where coral and fishes thrive. Polluted water, is not something that you will enjoy. Links More on the Water Ways Watch website see also these previous articles about the Water Ways Watch Related articles on Wild shores of Singapore |
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