The first river education activity of 2023 was held at Taman Jajar Sungai Ara on January 11th for the delegates of the ‘4th Educational Study visit and the 5th Transnational Meeting of the Erasmus+ program 2023’. The river activity was attended by a total of 30 participants from Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Spain, Greece, Poland, and Luxembourg. Dr. Hong Chern Wern was the program’s lead facilitator, assisted by Mr. Ooi Che Khai, Ms. Puteri, Ms. Tew Yi Lin, and Ms. Puteri Bandira. The vice president of Water Watch Penang, Dr. Tan Mou Leong who is also the organiser of the meeting, also attended the river activity.
Dr. Tan Mou Leong commenced by giving a short introduction to the participants about Water Watch Penang and its mission and vision. Next, Dr. Hong continued the program by introducing the programme of the day and the content itself, physical assessment, chemical assessment, and biological assessment based on the river at Taman Jajar. Then, he divided the participants into 3 groups to perform physical, and chemical assessments on the river water to determine the quality of the river water, including measuring pH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc.
The participants also learned to use the “catch and release” method and calculate the number of species of macroinvertebrates such as dragonfly nymph, damselfly nymph, and also water hoglouse to determine the Biological Water Quality Index of the water. After the calculation and comparison among the 3 group members, we could conclude that the river is a class C, moderately clean river.
Kindly contact Executive Manager, Dr. Hong Chern Wern at hong.wwp@gmail.com for further information.
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