Petaling Jaya, 10 November 2018 – River pollution is one of many crucial problems faced by healthy ecosystem in Malaysia and this is the issue that might be prevented by having a continuous and effective river monitoring action through awareness and education programme for the community. Today, 18 teachers from 7 schools in Klang Valley were invited by Salcon Berhad to join a Train-the-Trainers (TOT) programme to learn how to conduct a fun and educational river monitoring programme at Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara, TTDI.
The TOT programme, which was conducted for the sixth year running, is an extension of the award-winning Salcon Smart Water Programme (SSWP) organized in collaboration with non-governmental organization, Water Watch Penang (WWP)
The group of dedicated teachers, from 7 different secondary schools in Klang Valley were equipped with the knowledge and skills on how to conduct the half-day Salcon Smart Water programme. The programme covers hands-on physical, chemical and biological river water testing such as flow rate, pH level, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and catching of organism for biological monitoring activities as part of the methodology to identify the health of the river water.
Ms Chern Meng Gaik, General Manager of Salcon Berhad said "Due to limited manpower and facilities, we can only conduct the Salcon Smart Water programme 5 times a year, reaching out to an average of about 200 students per year. Ever since the TOT programme was started in 2013, the number of students benefitting from the programme has more than doubled, from an average of 209 to 440 students per year.”
“We are happy to see that the TOT programme is doing well to reach out to more students and we will continue supporting the teachers and schools which are interested to run this programme as it meets our objective of ensuring the sustainability of educating youths on the importance of river and water,” she added.
Since the start of the Salcon TOT programme in 2013, a total of 8 schools have gone on to conduct their own river programmes namely from SJKC Chen Moh, SJKT Puchong, SK Behrang in Perak, SMK Sains Tapak, Sekolah Sri Bestari, SMK Dato'Ahmad Razali, SMK Bandar Sri Damansara 1, SMK Bandar Sri Damansara 1 and Green Ranger Malaysia Club.
Puan Imelda Sahriah Bt Ishak, teacher from SMK Sungai Pusu said that: “I am glad that Salcon has provided us a platform on which we learn best practices and education techniques to educate our students on the importance of river and water conservation through fun and interactive activities. We hope that we can conduct our own river programme for our students in near future after the programme today.”
The President of WWP, Prof. Dr. Chan Ngai Weng, who is also affectionately nicknamed ‘the Malaysia’s Waterman’, together with his team, shared their experience with the participants on how to conduct a successful and sustainable river programme. “We are delighted to see the teachers participating actively to promote water conservation education. In future, we hope to conduct this programme for more schools from different states as water conservation education is important for every citizen especially when the nation is facing a water crisis issue,”” said Prof. Dr. Chan.
The schools involved in this year’s Salcon TOT programme are SMK Sungai Pusu, Gombak, Bilden Creative Learning Centre, Kolej Tingkatan Enam, SK Tasik Puteri 2, SMK Gegangsa, SMK Sultan Abdul Samad and SMK Kelana Jaya.
The Salcon Smart Water Programme started in 2010 and has benefited more than 2700 students and 470 teachers thus far. It has received two prestigious regional recognitions which are Asia-Pacific Enterprises Leadership Awards - Educational Service Award and Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards 2013 Southeast Asia - Green Leadership Award.
-END-