ICCS 2005 - SBWR

I came down today with a reassuring sense that things will turn out fine, from all the recce trips and correspondence we have had thus far, . The site buddies and the man and woman of the hour, Yueat Tin and Wei Siong, were really efficient in dispatching the various schools (SAS, United World College, Beatty Sec, Anderson Sec, Victoria JC, NUS). The site buddies (Marcus, Boon Ann, Kai Scene and Grace) were really good in briefing the participants and organizing the cleanup at respective sites.

The advance party set up the HQ at the center of the Kranji extension, a simple setup of only ground sheets, extra gloves and trashbags. By the time I did a quick check of all the sites, and proceeded back to the carpark, a steady stream of participants, dressed in the blue sleeved ICCS T shirt (nice design!), had already begun moving along the path towards our HQ. This is where NUS will branch off to try and link up with SAS further down. The site buddies quickly sprung into action and set the participants going. Soon the beach is covered with people trying to move around the mud properly, picking up litter, collecting data. No major crisis occurred, except that since this time round we did not do wet ops, we had to lug all the trash out using wheel barrows and big hand pushed carts. This was the most tiring part, fortunately Marcus had a team of strong men who rose to the occasion and did lots of trips carting the rubbish out. Hey Marcus, we need these men next year!

We wrapped up everything around 1pm. Which was much earlier than last year. On the whole things went smoothly. Thank you all for your unreserved help!


Some points which occurred to me during the exercise.

Siting of ‘Field HQ’ is good. We could move logistics faster this way. And we can monitor things better from there as well.

Logistics - More is better than ‘just enough’. The only situation which occurred was that we ran out of trashbags towards the end of the cleanup.

Oi Yee is fantastic as safety officer, though you were not involved in action, we could proceed with things assured with the knowledge that you are there in case anything happens. Luckily your services were not needed. Thank you so much and have a nice trip in Silk Road.

Ria was great as a photographer. Thanks Ria! Looking forward to see your fantastic photos.

Airani was really professional, she did not come out of her office throughout the entire operation and went back straight to key in data without lunch!

Water - Hmm... I’m probably going to get skinned alive by Siva for asking this, but we had water last year and I did not check if there is this year. Providing water is a double edged sword for we will generate more wastes using disposable cups!

Reforestation sites - SBWR has done extensive planting along KR 3 and 4. Since the beach is really clean there, the participants had to search really hard to find trash and in their movement, they may accidentally damage the seedlings planted. We could push most participants to help support NUS and SAS next year. This will ease the impact on the reforested areas.

Trash movement - thanks to Chen Kee, Angeline and the rest of the team coming from various sites, the tired wheel barrow team got a much needed reinforcement towards the end of the cleanup, which was the hardest as we are getting trash from SAS. For next year, we may need more manpower to move trash out.

Overall, I had a good time! Hope to join in the fun again next year.