Youth Water Conference at St Andrew Sec School 22 May 2008

10 of the Project Work students attended the 2nd Youth Water Conference hosted by St Andrew Secondary School on 22 May 2008.
The concurrent sessions were beneficial and useful for the students as they (the 8 group leaders) would be able to go back to school and share with their group members how they should organise and present their findings during the PW presentation in September 2008.

The first session was presented by Dunman High Secondary School. One of the groups researched on the most polluted water bodies in Singapore and the second, presented on the ABC programme at MacRitchie Reservoir.
After the concurrent sessios, they also attended a talk by invited speakers from PUB. Ms Chan Ee Mein, the Senior Manager of the 3P Network Department, highlighted the programmes and activities that PUB will be organising in the next half of the year.

In fact there will be many events and activities for the students from next week onwards.
Some of them include
1) A water exhibition titled H2o = life at the Science Centre from next week onwards till Ot 2008
http://www.waterexhibition.com.sg/about.html
The students can join in the learning journey activities and they would understand how precious water is to Singapore and why water conservation is important to Singaporeans.

2) Omni-Max Movie titled 'Grand Canyon'
http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/otmovie.jsp?type=8&root=0&parent=0&cat=444
This film sets to remind the world that restoring our waterways and conserving fresh water are important, not just in developing nations.

3) International Water Conference held at Suntec City from 23-27th June 2008.

Visit to the Marina Barrage 14 May 2008

We had a very interesting learning journey at the Marina Barrage Exhibition Centre.  We were very priviledged to have a PUB executive engineer who conducted a one-hour talk on the Marina Barrage project for us.  It was indeed a very fruitful session and the pupils were able to obtain many first hand information related to this new water catchment during the Q & A session.  

Some of the questions asked were:

1) How will the marina barrage affect the ecology of the area around the Kallang and Singapore Rivers?  Due to decreasing salinity, many marine animals were unable to survive in this changing environment.  Is PUB also looking into the environmental damage and how are they addressing the issue?  Will freshwater fish be put into the reservoir instead once the barrage is completed?  

2) How do they create the reservoir with fresh water?  Do they flush out all the sea water through a series of pumps or do they dilute it over time with rainwater?  

3) When will the reservoir be ready to supply fresh water to homes?  Which part of Singapore will this catchment supply water to?

4) What were some of the difficulties faced during the construction of the barrage?

5) What are the materials that are used to reinforce the crest gates?

6) Many other questions...

Pupils in the various PW groups may want to answer these questions by posting them in the 'Comments' below.

You may have also discovered some other interesting facts about the Marina Barrage.  Please include them in the report and email it to me individually.  My email address is siewtf@gmail.com.

Do spend some time to reflect and pen down your thoughts as soon as possible.

Submit your first draft of the report by 15 June 2008 via email to me.

Meanwhile, please meet up with your group members to sort out the photos and document your findings.

Enjoy your holidays and I'll hope to hear from all of you soon.