Pulau Semakau Intertidal Walk 2013

Armed with bottles of mineral water and insect repellents, a group of young people (being young at heart counts too!) embarked on a journey to learn more about the wildlife which reside in the coastal area of Pulau Semakau, an island located at the south of mainland Singapore, and, Singapore’s one and only Landfill. This group consisted of participants and mentors from Youth Program, Desmond (MP for Jurong Spring GRC) and JSYEC members. 

We took a bus to Marina South Pier, where our guides from Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) were waiting for us. We boarded the ferry at 2.30pm, and upon reaching the island, we headed to a briefing room at the Main Building.

An introductory video about Pulau Semakau was shown; about it being Singapore’s “incinerated-trash storage island” and how with good environmental awareness (the 3Rs), the island can last us till 2030. Next up, was a short trip into the barrages, where ships transferred the rubbish (incinerated waste) from mainland Singapore to Semakau to be loaded into the landfills.

As the mini-buses rumbled along the barrages, the guides patiently explained the various sections of the barrages. We were surprised to hear that the rubbish did not smell at all (the bus uncle opened the door to prove that statement!), as there was no organic waste present.

After the short tour at the barrages, the buses proceeded to the southernmost tip of the island. With the seascape as our backdrop, we took a group photo :D

Along the way, we saw cells (sections of the island) which had been filled with rubbish as well as empty sections. On a side note, one of the guides speculated that there may be factories or houses built on these cells sometime in the future. If that happens, we hope that the natural environment will be preserved!

Moving on, at around 4pm, we alighted from the mini-buses, onto a road, seemingly to be in-the-middle-of-nowhere. The guides briefed us on the “etiquette” to handling wildlife as well as the importance of insect repellent, covered shoes and sunscreen lotion(we were about to trek through a muddy, mosquito infested mangrove forest trail for 5 minutes before reaching the coastal area). At this juncture, the kiasee ones earnestly applied insect repellent, slapped on sunscreen lotion, wore hats/sunglasses and what-nots to protect themselves from the unwanted.

After making sure everyone has appropriate footwear on, we headed into the jungle. Time was of the essence, because time and tide wait for no man (literally). We could only view the wildlife during low tide, hence the name “Intertidal Walk”. The trail was very muddy; our feet sank into the soil, squelching away with even step we took. Meanwhile, a few unlucky ones offered free “food” to friendly mosquitoes that were hanging around nearby.

After what seemed to be eons, we reached the coastal area! Lining the coast was mangroves, which serve to protect the island from waves and to stabilise the soils. The mangroves are also natural habitats for many creatures. Try to spot the crab in the second photo below!

With the patient explanation from the RMBR guides, we examined various wildlife creatures and learnt more about their lineages, food sources et cetera. See the photos below for up-close “mug shots” of the wildlife!

Above: sea sail

Starfishes! The moment the guide taught us how to spot the starfishes, everyone self-initiated a search. Partially buried in the sand, it can be easy to miss them. We also watched a starfish turning itself over… it was incredibly slow and fascinating. Learning how to spot them helped the starfishes too. While they would probably remain uninjured when we accidentally stepped on them (or, they could simply regenerate a lost arm), the guides advised us to be cautious.

This stingray was a rather surprising find, since we did not expect stingray to exist in shallow waters. It was real pretty to look at, but it is not to be messed with. Its spiky tail contains poison, and it will not hesitate to inject the tip into a perceived enemy’s skin.

We also saw numerous corals. They exist in a variety of colours, and are sources of food and protection/shelter for marine creatures.

Behold……This is neither seaweed nor black fungus! It is a flatworm, and our guides were able to pinpoint where its head and tail were (which proved why they are guides :P).

Of course, we could not forget the sea cucumbers (one of the few edible animals there, as one foodie noted :P This sea cucumber shown here is fondly known to many as, the Garlic Bread). It has a slimy texture, but it is rather hard and heavy. Within its body, the sea cucumber stores water. If the surface it lies on is not flat e.g. a palm, it will expel water and meld itself to the contours of the surface. Like the starfishes, the sea cucumbers are indistinguishable from its habitat unless one’s eyes are trained to spot them. Luckily for the cucumbers, they usually reside in deeper water and are near corals, reducing the chance of being stepped upon.

Lo and Behold...The Stars of RMBR’s intertidal walk (pun intended)! These Knobbly starfishes are different from their smaller cousins found in shallower waters, as evident in their colourings and numerous choco-chip spikes. They are about as large as a person’s face. We could not resist taking individual shots with the pretty starfishes~

We did not realise how far we were from the shore till we proceeded to return back. The tide was rising and there was an impending storm; and we had to beat it and get back to the Main Building before it starts pouring, so, back into the mangrove forest we went. Zoom zoom! Luckily, the sky held the rain till we boarded the mini buses. After some washing up at the Main Building, we took the ferry back to Singapore~

Ending off with a quote from Albert Einstein, “Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

More information about participating clubs/committees:

       1)   Jurong Spring Youth Executive Committee

We are a group of enthusiastic young people, who wants to make things happen in our neighbourhood. By organising various events with different focus (e.g. community service, environment protection, etc.), we aim to make Jurong Spring a more exciting and meaningful community. Do visit our fanpage @  https://www.facebook.com/JSCCYEC  

      2)   Jurong Spring Youth Program

Introduced in 2013, Jurong Spring Youth Programme serves as a platform for youths to learn, grow and explore through various H.E.A.R.T activities. These activities encompass different mode of involvement in the community as well as visits to places which are not easily accessible by the public. These youths are inducted into the programme via various award ceremonies in Jurong Spring Constituency. In addition, there will be youth buddies joining in so as to allow relationship-building between the youths as well as their buddies. Should you have any queries, feel free to email to jsyouthprogramme@gmail.com.

  3)   Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

The Pulau Semakau Intertidal Walk is a half-day programme conducted in conjunction with the National Environment Agency (NEA). The programme will take you through the operations of Semakau Landfill and the pristine intertidal area of the island. Guided by RMBR Nature Guides, participants will explore the richness of the seagrass meadows and coral reefs without having to dive in our waters.

    

     

YEC BBQ gathering

Jurong Spring Youth Executive Committee (YEC) held our annual end-of-year BBQ gathering at the Jurong Spring CC for the first time. We had invited more than 30 participants to join us in this BBQ gathering to show our appreciation for their contributions. We began our program with a "Running Man" style game organised by our enthusiastic member Eugene Lim together with Bei Yi, Zhi Hao and Chou Meng. From the photos, it's not hard to spot the excitement from the expression of our participants. All of us regardless of age came together to play the game.

Following that after the game, we had a short presentation by Elvis Cheong on the V2 scheme. He had shared with the participants on the year plan for the V2 and T-shirt was presented to the participants to recognise their service. Meanwhile, Ivan, Hao Chun, Ann Yong, Wei Siang, Melvin and the rest of our friends from Woman Executive Committee (WEC) are busy with the BBQ preparation.

We are honoured to have invited Advisor, Mr Desmond Lee and Community Club Management Committee (CCMC) chairman, Kelvin Tan to join us in this joyous occasion  We had a good chat with them on anything other than business. Our CCMC chairman even sponsored us with two cartons of drinks to show his support for us.Our WEC chairperson, Ms Chiang and Group Constituency Director, Shu Yi were there to show us there support for this event. Our friend from WEC, Alicia also brought along home cooked noodles and some snacks she bought from Thailand during her holiday.

Indeed, there are many hidden talents for us to discover from each other. We had came to realise that Ivan is actually very talented in BBQ satay. For your information, Wei Siang owned quite a decently professional set of BBQ pit. He even prepared drunk prawn for us with some leave over martell towards the end of the program. We enjoyed ourselves with the food and drinks and most importantly the companionship.

May we get together again to celebrate our annual "harvest", hope to see you next year.
Happy New Year 2013.

P.S. Star Gazing Tonight!

Once upon a Saturday, a group of YEC members brought a group of residents over to Pulau Semakau for stargazing. Everyone went home happily after the event. That’s the short story, and now we shall proceed to bore you with all the unnecessary details.

We were seriously kidding. Just a warning – you may feel disappointed at missing out all the fun, and may be inclined to spend all your disposable income on YEC events in the future.
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P.S. Stargazing Tonight! was designed to be an overnight event at Pulau Semakau, so participants would meet us at the JSCC on Saturday at 4pm, and return around 9 am on Sunday.
Typically, with other events, some participants would be late, but this time round, we actually left the CC on the dot at 4pm (three cheers for the participants!). The bus ride to Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal was rather fast; we reached in half an hour.

The Astronomical Society of Singapore (TASOS) arrived soon after. There is restricted access to Pulau Semakau, and TASOS is one of the 3 groups that actually gained this access (three cheers for TASOS!). TASOS had their own participants, and after everyone assembled, we boarded two ferries over!
Needless to say, on a Saturday’s evening, the sea line was anything less than stunning. The ferry moved more or less vertically from Singapore, so having the sea breeze on our faces and watching the Singapore “grew” smaller did have the illusion of going for an exotic getaway!

An exotic getaway it was, for aside from TASOS leaders and a few worldly participants, our group has never stepped on Semakau’s soil before.

Now, a short and dirty history on Semakau: it is Singapore’s landfill island, where wastes that could not be incinerated are buried. This is a charming photo of a building where ships deposit the wastes for trucks to carry to the landfills.

Here’s a picture of the map. We arrived at the top right corner, but the stargazing event would be conducted at the bottom left hand corner (see the “pincer” with a house icon).

TASOS proceed to conduct a briefing for us in the Admin building, which included a brief history of Semakau (it is man-made o_o) and has been around for 10-odd years. Aside from stargazing, Semakua also hosts sport fishing events and bird-watching activities. There are also intertidal walks (YEC is looking to plan this so keep your eyes peeled!), so this is more than just a landfill island. We were warned to keep our feet on the paved road; curiosity may kill because the slopes of each cell are steep, and not to forget, the sea currents are rather strong.

TASOS also went through an itinerary for the stargazing event. They assured us that while the stargazing event is really at an ulu place, there will be bus trips back to the main building for participants to shower and rest.

Off we go! Mini buses were provided, but a few adventurous participants decided to walk over. It was about 4 km walk, and we had a first-hand experience of the smell of the landfills… There was no bad smell!
Once we reached the sites, YEC proceeded to prepare two BBQ pits for our hungry participants. We kind of specialised in our tasks right away: one was in charge of the cooler which contained not-yet-yummy food, a few would cook the food, and the rest were in charge of eating (LOL). The picture below tells all (YEC organisers were decked out in orange and black YEC shirts):

 You may notice that there were quite a few non-YEC shirt participants around the BBQ pits. Some were actually YEC members who participated in the event, and offered to help out (thank you!). A few others were non-YEC members, and they gallantly offered to help (THANK YOU!). We needed the extra help because…

The lighting was sparse, and we needed people to hold torchlights. We still managed to feed hungry people (30 in all); see their happy faces below:

While eating, participants could wander over to the area where TASOS set up their telescopes. The sky was rather cloudy (imminent rain and haze) so we could not see many celestial objects. However, we did pretend we were spies and looked at the various ships anchored around the island. The views were very clear.
This is Albert, whom YEC liaised with to conduct this event, and has been a great coordinator. The photo shows him with two very expensive telescopes:

While it was unfortunate that the sky was too cloudy, TASOS members showed us videos and pictures of previous stargazing events. They also presented some camera techniques:

It then began to drizzle. Luckily the first mini bus came and half of us hurried to take it. We then showered and slept inside the Admin building. Around 4 am, something happened… a few people were sneaking out of the building, and took the telescopes along! Don’t worry, they were TASOS people. They wanted to see if the sky was clear enough for stargazing, and it was! The news began to spread:

There was Jupiter with its asteroid belt, and Earth’s moon:

We then cleared the place and did some housekeeping, after which we took the ferries back at 7.30 am.
Last but not least, the group photo:

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If you want to keep track of Jurong Spring YEC’s events, join our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JSCCYEC. We would also like to express our thanks to TASOS. You can find them here http://tasos.org.sg/.

Lastly, we would also like to thank all our participants, YEC members or not, for making this event a truly memorable one. Thank you and we hope to see you again!

Reuse Reduce Recycle!

On 15 September 2012, Saturday morning, 21 volunteers forsake their beloved bed coming
 together for a common purpose - collecting recycled material for the mid-autumn lantern making competition. 
The aim of this project is to promote the use of recycled material and promote community involvement in the environmental effort. . Mr Desmond Lee, adviser to Jurong GRC had also specially come down to give us his support despite his packed schedule. The sharing of his house visit experience and insight of approaching residents had greatly helped us to prepare mentally for the challenges ahead. We were glad to receive very strong support from the Residents of Jurong Spring Zone ‘C’. They had truly surprised us with some of the unexpected items from a packet of 10 brand new neck ties to cordless telephone which are still in their packaging. We managed to interact with the curious residents and some of them even personally brought down their items for us. Thanks to the participants' enthusiasm in our Recycled Material Collection Drive, we had lots of fun and memorable time spent together working hand in hand on a common purpose. Most importantly, we had given the recycled materials a chance to live beyond its purpose. Hope everyone can do their parts in conserving our natural resources by reduce, reuse and recycle. A special thanks to representatives from NTU Nanyang Arts Ensemble(NAE) and Jurong Spring Resident Committee(RC) Zone 'C' for the support.

P.S. Star Gazing Tonight

Indeed an exclusive stargazing experience at Pulua Semakau. We travelled there by land and sea transport just for that special night. Beside stargazing, we also had a memorable BBQ at the other end of the island. Despite the incremental weather, we managed to capture a few glances at the moon, planets and stars. Good time is always too short for everyone, we look forward to the next trip there !

Bond and Bike 2012

We survived the Bond and Bike night cycling challenge!

It was great to see our 150-strong crowd taking over various parts of town from midnight till 6am. Kudos to all our friends who contributed in every little way — and special mention goes to our hearing-impaired cyclists from the SADeaf, the ones who really stole the show throughout the night!

This event is also brought to you by Cycle Cube, NUS Rovers, Jurong Spring YEC, and Singapore Association of the Deaf.

Youth Day @ Grace Orchard School – Busy Volunteers

Guilty as charged! That’s how I felt after reading “The Busy Trap” on the New York Times. As the title suggests, the author talked about how we are always keeping ourselves busy. Such scenarios are often seen like whenever I meet up with my friends, one of the first opening statements from them will be “what are you busy with now?” Indeed, I must confess that I often pack my schedule back-to-back, but I never believe if the busyness was fulfilling. However, my recent volunteering event with Grace Orchard School gave me a differing opinion on how some people spend their time fruitfully.

On the last Friday of June 2012, a group of volunteers helped out with the Youth Day’s celebration at Grace Orchard School, a school for students diagnosed with Mild Intellectual Disability (MID) and those with Mild Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). As 1^st July was approaching, the teachers wanted to organize a fun-filled event for their students. In order to inculcate the values of unity and perseverance in them, games, such as tag-of-war and dog and bone, were planned to allow youths to work together to complete the games. We, volunteers, manned the stations while they had fun!

On a weekday, many would expect volunteers to be students and retirees). Instead, there was a good mix of working adults and students, who took the time off their busy schedules to volunteer. For many, it was their first time at Grace Orchard.  As I chatted with some of the volunteers, I realized that many were rushing off to events after Youth Day’s celebration. However, they had specially taken time off to attend this event.

I believe that many of us, across the spectrum of our society, are in what Tim Kreider described as the “busy trap”. However, my interactions with these volunteers provided me the perspectives that some of these busy people are in search of something meaningful and for the space to give back to the community altruistically. Seeing the smiling faces on busy people when we left the school affirmed that insight. Though many of us are in a “busy trap”, at least some of us have pockets of time that we will be proud of.

About V2 Scheme

V2 Scheme is a flexible volunteering scheme, organized by Jurong Spring Community Club, which provides opportunities to help out in the VWOs in the area. If you would like to know more or be in the mailing list for upcoming events, please kindly drop a mail to jurongspringv2@gmail.com.