Students of our school are taught to love their rivers as an awareness programme created by the school to teach them to preserve the environment. Through World Water Monitoring Activities programme we hope that the students when they grew up will be more committed in protecting their surroundings.
Our participation in World Water Monitoring Day started as a simple geography, science and moral lesson but somehow the focus got shifted to rivers. We noticed the student’s interest in their environmental issue and decided to introduce the programme instead. We made a compulsory for the pupils and teachers to be involved in the WWMD Activities. We conducted water samplings and carried out checks on micro-organism found in the river to understand it eco-system. As a result of this , the school had adopted Sungai Telok Nyior as part of the projects and we managed to get funding from for our activities. The money has been used for many river camps and buying equipments for water monitoring. The activities at the river had also created awareness among the residents and factories located nearby. The river is less polluted now compared with 2 years ago.
Our River Ranger Programme and Water Monitoring Activities has managed to grab the media’s attention and highlights the fact that the programme is seen as an import education tool for people to learn about river conservation. The teacher in charge for this project, Kalaimani Supramaniam has presented papers on Bio-Indicators in Environments Education Programmes . He was also been invited by ENO Environment Online based in Finland to give talk and presentation on Water Monitoring Activities and River Watch Programmes during their International ENO Scifest in Joenssu University in April 2008 and April 2009 which were attended by more that 50 countries from every corner of the world. And later , Life-Link Friendship School based in Sweden has also invited Kalaimani Supramaniam to give a talk on Water for Life during the Life-Link XIV International Youth & Schools Conference from 10 to 17 August 2008 at Rosario San Lorenzo , Argentina. The best education practice of our active rural school in Northern part of Malaysia with more than 500 students and 50 teachers were discussed in details and shared among the participating countries.
Our school has been invited by Life-Link to join UNESCO Associated Schools Program and UNESCO/UN Decade campaigns on Culture of Peace, Water for Life and Education for Sustainable Development for 2009 to 2011.
All our school activities are contributing for the UN decades 2005-2014 on ESD, Education for Sustainability Development and UN decades 2005 -2015 on Water for Life and providing access to water for achieving the 7th goal of Millennium Development Goals which is agreed by all 191 United Nations Member States at the Millennium Summit in 2000. (Ensuring environmental sustainability). The International Decade for Water for Life was adopted by United Nations General Assembly at its 78th plenary meeting on 23 December 2003. World Water Day on 22 March 2005 marks the start of the International Decade for Action on Water for Life. The WWMD Activities really helped us a lot with more students , teachers , schools and local communities eager to join in future.
3 of our students have presented WWMD Activities at 3rd World ENO conference in Finland from 14 to 18 April 2009. They showed how to monitor the rivers using WWMD kits to some participants from 30 countries. They even took the long holiday trip to monitor rivers in Finland , Sweden , Estonia and Holland. They even went all the way to IWA office at Den Haque , Holland to get more information about WWMD. It was indeed a good experience for the doing monitoring activities in the Scandinavian Countries.
They even helped to run Malaysia Thailand International Water Monitoring Camp in December 2009 . A good experience and motivation for them at International Level.
Our school is always more than happy to train anyone who would like to save our rivers and some 50 National Service Trainees were trained by our school River Rangers. The school is also willing to share its knowledge to preserve the environment and we are willing to help others to set up their own centre to carry out the activities.
We hope our projects and WWMD Activities would give everyone a better understanding about the importance of our rivers and appreciate the value of them. Only then our rivers would be taken care of and our source of water be safeguarded for the future generations. We are happy to introduce the concept of ‘Civic Science’ as a way to approach school students and community participation in river management and also as the protectors of our rivers. It means giving the people the awareness , knowledge and most importantly is the skill to take action on environmental matters. Students regardless of race, gender and religion have benefited from our project and we are proud that our project is recognised globally.
A visit to IWA office at Den Haque , Holland on 22 April 2009 in conjuction with Earth Day . Dr Darren briefed us more about WWMD Activities
Just finished monitoring at Lake Toba , North Sumatera , Indonesia with our teacher advisor
Arriving in Holland for Water Monitoring Activities in April 2009 ( During our tour to European Countries )
Malaysia Thailand International Water Monitoring Camp , December 2009. Our students are the facilitators
Our River Ranger Club Chairman promoting WWMD
Malaysia Thailand International Water Monitoring Camp , Dec. 2009
Promoting WWMD Activities during World Wetland Celebration at our school
World Water Monitoring Day Celebration , Oct. 2009
At our Nyior River
A busy day promoting WWMD
A busy day promoting WWMD
Support us – Launching of WWMD
Our school general works also in action for WWMD
Action in South Korea October 2008. 1st Asian Little Ramsar ECO Camp ( Reporting of WWMD Activities )
All set for European Water Monitoring Tour
Our local WWMD Champions
Promoting WWMD
Our River Care Education Centre
Monitoring Invertebrates at our Nyior River
We also use Lamotte Water Kits
We use 3 branded water kits
Preparing a river monitoring report
River Report Card
River Signage at our school mentioning 40 longest rivers in the world.
( Our teacher Kalaimani monitored this river in 2008 )
Promoting WWMD at our school
Monitoring at our Mangrove Planting Area ( Kuala Gula ) ( we have planted more than 300 thousand mangroves since 2007 )
Promoting WWMD Activities at 3rd World ENO Conference , April 2009 Finland
Promoting WWMD Activities at 3rd World ENO Conference , April 2009 Finland
Promoting WWMD Activities at 3rd World ENO Conference , April 2009 Finland
Our Achievement for 2009
The best River Ranger and School Nature Club at State and National Level , 2009
National Youth Award for Science and Technology Category ( Plaque , Euro 400 and a certificate signed by the Prime Minister )
Most Active Student Award at State Level for 2009
Local Water Monitoring Award for 2009
Our International Monitoring Sites Includes
| 1 | Baltiq Sea Estonia | Baltiq Sea Estonia | Sea | 58.1460 | 24.2830 |
| 2 | Chao Phraya River Thailand | Chao Phraya River Thailand | City | 13.7550 | 100.4830 |
| 3 | Chonburi Thailand | Chonburi Thailand | Town | 13.1810 | 101.1540 |
| 4 | Damnoen Saduak Thailand | Damnoen Saduak Thailand | Canal | 13.3110 | 99.5740 |
| 5 | Maliveld Cannel Den Haque , Holland | Maliveld Cannel Holland | Near Town | 52.0840 | 4.3170 |
| 6 | Pattaya Thailand | Pattaya Thailand | Ocean | 12.5550 | 100.5220 |
| 7 | Uppsala Sweden | Uppsala Sweden | Agricultural Area | 59.4700 | 17.4960 |
| 8 | Pielisjoki Joensuu , Finland | Pielisjoki Finland | Town | 62.4110 | 3.00018 |
| 9 | Satun Thailand | Satun\Thailand | Ocean | 6.4530 | 99.5050 |
No comments:
Post a Comment