Sungei Buloh Coastal Cleanup

The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is on of the areas in Singapore gazetted as Nature Reserve in Singapore. Located off Kranji and Lim Chu Kang, this nature reserve features flora and fauna for both Mangrove and Fresh Water habitats.

Yesterday was the International Coastal Cleanup Day for Singapore, and over 280 volunteers from many different educational institutions in Singapore made a trip to the reserve to do their best to clean up all the trash! In the half day event, over 3 tonnes of trash was brought out from just 400m of the swamp. Data about the trash collected was recorded and profiled. Some of the volunteers found very peculiar things during the cleanup, like wooden chairs, diapers, and mattresses! You can find a good report of the results at the 2006 ICCS Results Page.

I think we all ought to do our part to keep places like this clean and green. Articles like plastic bags and carton tapes can strangle animals like crabs, essentially killing them.

One of the trekking places that has been really very much spoilt by trash is the campsite for Berkelah Waterfalls. Just beside the campsite, there is one huge collection of trash - and all these trash are not really biodegradable - most are plastics and food containers and etc. The look of the site is horrible, and imagine sleeping right next to a dump! It not only stinks the place, but also attracts unwanted insects and animals to the campsite. For example, we spotted a porcupine during one of our trips there, salvaging the trash for food.

The point is, its so easy to “contribute” to the trash. Everybody brings one food wrapper up and dumps it there, but the eventual result of this is that huge collection of trash, that is so unsightly. Clearing it up would require a lot of effort because of the sheer amount of trash there is.

So remember the golden rule whenever you ever venture into nature. Take only photographs, leave only footprints.

Tags: coastal cleanup, sungei buloh