Nature Water Wonder Trail

In conjunction with Singapore World Water Day and in support of Public Utilities Board (PUB), Earthlink NTU organized a Nature Water Wonder Trail on Saturday, March 11th 2017. Singapore World Water Day, which has now reached its 10th year anniversary, aims to continue to increase the society’s awareness to conserve water resources.
Despite the early morning start, a number of students and members of public gathered at MacRitchie Reservoir Park at 8.30 AM to join us for this event. After allocated into groups, the event started with trail hiking along several trails at the park such as Petai Trail and MacRitchie Nature Trail. During the trail hiking, we took the opportunity to observe and appreciate the biodiversity found in the park such as the long-tailed macaque and the rattan plant.
While we were appreciating the biodiversity found along our trek, our Nature Guides provided valuable insights on the biodiversity in Singapore and the importance of guarding them for the future generations. The need to guard the biodiversity is important especially since Singapore, despite its relatively small land territory compared to other countries, still boasts a diverse array of plants and animals such as the ones found in the park, thanks to the continuous commitments from amazing individuals to conserve its nature reserves.
After the trail hiking, the event continued with water quality testing demonstrated by our nature guides with water testing kit from PUB to understand the water quality in the reservoir. The participants were also given a chance to have a hands-on experience on checking the water’s acidity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen concentration. The testing results showed that the quality of water in the reservoir is pretty good since it fulfills all the criteria for a clean reservoir water, proving that PUB is successful in its ABC (Active, Beautiful, and Clean Water) initiative. The nature guides also explained about the processes needed to make PUB’s tap water drinkable, such as testing the water under rigorous standards.
Concluding the event, participants were provided with tips to save water and ensure ample water availability in Singapore through comparing their household water usage with the national consumption average data provided by PUB. One of the simple tricks suggested to reduce water consumption is to simply shower for a shorter time. Reducing your shower time by only 1 minute can save you up to 2.5 gallons (more than 9 liters) of water! [1] Can you imagine how many water we can save every day if everyone applies this tip to their daily lives? It is certainly not a little amount!
With this event, we hope to equip the participants with the awareness and mindset to value every drop of water. Even with all the extensive research and development done by the government to secure the country’s daily demand of clean water, it would pale in comparison with the ideal situation where every single one of us appreciates the importance of water-saving. Readers, it is time to treat water like the important resource as it has always been. Change starts with us!
Sources:
[1] Arrington, D. (2014, February 13). Showers vs. baths: Which use less water?. Retrieved from http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article2591077.html