SINGAPORE:

Starting young in Water Conservation

by Tharuka Prematillake

SINGAPORE, Oct 5 (IPS) - "It's exciting and makes Singapore clean," S. Vishna, a primary school student, says of his efforts, along with friends, in cleaning the Singapore river base here one weekend.

"We should keep our environment clean because if we don't, we won't get pure water," chimed in his classmate, Akilamani Saradha.

The two youngsters are part of the River Monster Educational Programme of the Water Watch Society (WWS), a non-government group that aims to cultivate good practices among citizens of this water- short island republic by starting them young, training and working with volunteers.

The River Monster programme aims to give primary-school students valuable hands-on experience about water pollution and importance of river cleanliness.

"It's easier to create an impact on students rather than on adults," points out Tan Phong, a regular member of the Saturday volunteer programme at WWS.

Adults usually already have set mindsets, so it is easier to change the behaviour of younger people, Phong explained. Lower primary school students are the society's main target group, because it is easier to involve them in actual coastal cleaning activities as a part of their schools' extra-curricular activities.

"Once we give them the message, they can go back home and tell their parents, grandparents and other elders," explains Annie Young Giri, education coordinator at WWS ."Once they come down here, they can actually realise that this (pollution) is actually originating from their homes."

Because water is a very precious resource in Singapore, the government has gone to great lengths to make the people aware of the need to conserve and use water wisely.

There are also many societies, government agencies and private sector organisations that help to prevent water contamination in various ways.

This tiny South-east Asian island republic of 693 sq km and 4.4 million inhabitants only has a 10-sq km under fresh water.

Singapore imports nearly half of its daily consumption of 1.14 billion litres of water a day from reservoirs and rivers in neighbouring Malaysia's southern Johor state.

This is covered under agreements signed in 1961 and 1962, when Singapore was still a part of the Malay federation. Two other agreements signed during this period allow Singapore to use up to 461 acres of land in Johor as catchment areas for 99 years.

All this water is pumped into Singapore through three huge pipelines across the two km causeway that separates the two countries.

WWS' activities, held mostly on weekends and during school holidays, include patrolling rivers and their catchments, and reporting to the relevant authorities any kind of pollution in those areas.

In addition to educating and raising awareness about water waste management, WWS, formed in 1998, plays the role of supporting polytechnics and university student societies. It provides essential equipment such as boats, bikes and kayaks to students' societies that are involved with river-based cleaning and recreation activities. In return, they invite these societies to join the water cleaning programmes of WWS.

Yet it is not always an easy task to get students to join in these activities. "Cleaning is never interesting. And that is a challenge we face and something that we need to accept," he said.

In an attempt to make water conservation more meaningful and interesting, the WWS organises an Eco Camp of three days and two nights near the riverside along the Kallang Basin.

During this time, youngsters play recreational games that help build team spirit and raise awareness about the importance of a clean environment.

In a typical weekend WWS activity, school volunteers meet at an agreed place around 8 a.m. They are provided with numerous supplies, such as gloves and trash bags and safety information prior to the start of the programme.

Then, they remove debris from riverbanks and canals and collect valuable information about the quantity and source of debris. Later, these data will be summarised and submitted to government and other relevant authorities in order to educate the public on waterways debris issues.

Debris that contaminates water consists of cigarette butts, food wrappers, containers, caps, lids, plastic bags and plastic bottles.

"I think it's very interesting we can actually go down into the river base and clean the rivers. And this is (our) future drinking water, so it's important that we clean it ourselves.

I found it very meaningful that we're actually helping out to get the stuff clean," Shiying Liu, from National University of Singapore High School says when asked about her involvement in this clean-up campaign.

"After going through all the hard work to clean up the river base, we would definitely pass the message to others," she explains.

Also, after experiencing the difficulty of cleaning it, we would think twice before littering hereafter." Schoolmate Viona Lam adds: "It's easier to just take care of the environment without littering it." (* This story is being distributed by IPS Asia-Pacific under a communication agreement with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre in Singapore, which produced it.)