13 APRIL 2023 – Water Watch Penang successfully conducted a river and water education programme for students from Green Education Society, Han Chiang High School on 13th April 2023.
WWP Executive Manager Dr Hong Chern Wern began the programme by introducing WWP’s history, goals, and past activities. He also explained to the students regarding the water crisis around the world, water treatment processes, water conservation, water-saving technologies and other water-related issues.
Meet our new intern, Ms. Lee Tze Ee from the School of Communication majoring in journalism from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
Lee Tze Ee or Jocelyn is currently a final year undergraduate student pursuing her Bachelor of Communication (Honours) majoring in journalism at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She was born and raised in Ipoh, Perak.
Being a former school athlete, Jocelyn loves to swim, hike and jog during her spare time. She particularly has a fondness for water sports ever since she learned to swim at an early age. Besides, she also serves as a lifeguard at USM where she learned about lifesaving skills, water survival skills, and water safety issues.
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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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8th January 2023: Water Watch Penang was invited to give a short talk by Penang Green Council under Kebun KitaR’s Green Education Program managed by Bayan Greentech Sdn Bhd. The Kebun KitaR, a community farm managed by Bayan Greentech Sdn Bhd, is organising a free green education program session per month from August 2022 until July 2023 at Penang Digital Library to educate the participants on urban farming. The Kebun KitaR’s training and workshop will be done according to three main themes, namely ‘Act At Home’, ‘The Future Is A Garden’, and ‘Learn From Nature’ to promote sustainability and encourage the public to lead a healthy life.
The education program started with the introduction of the topic of water conservation and soil health by Dr. Jen. In order to help the participants to raise their awareness about the importance of clean water and appreciate the current adequate supply of clean water in Penang, Dr. Hong then presented and discuss on the local, national, and global water issues and the related topic such as Baling flood in 2022 that caused the water disruption in Penang. Several challenges of water resources management in Penang had also been introduced such as high water consumption of Penangites, and cheap water tariff.
In the final section, Dr.Hong emphasised various water-saving methods that can be implemented by the public in their houses. Before ending the talk, Dr.Hong also taught the participants to calculate their daily water usage. The participants also share their water-saving practice experience in their daily life. There are also many Penangites feedback to Dr.Hong and share their shockingness about realizing Penang is a water-poor state in Malaysia.
For more information, please contact Dr. Hong via email at hong.wwp@gmail.com
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Five storytelling sessions in total were held from August to November 2022. More than 550 children/students, aged from three to twelve, participated in the face-to-face activities at several sites (kindergarten, primary school, and story home). The children were exposed to water-related concepts and their knowledge of water was to be increased through a variety of water-conservation-theme activities, including storytelling led by WWP’s facilitator and teachers, painting, crafting projects, and other activities. They also gained knowledge about water resources, the necessity of water in daily life, the water crisis, and the importance of water conservation and water saving for a reliable supply of water.
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