APU team won 1st place in the Water Vanguards Challenge 2023

Water is essential for life and nature conservation. However, water conservation is a complex problem because several potential causes/drivers can be a hindrance, such as unsustainable consumption patterns, pollution, loss of green cover, and so on.

As such, the WWF-Malaysia Freshwater Conservation organised the Water Vanguards Challenge 2023 to educate the future generation on the importance of water conservation through a study tour and treasure hunt, combined with the challenge held at Putrajaya Wetlands Park from 6^th to 8^th January 2023.

There was also an ice-breaker session, a visit to Pantai 2 Regional Sewage Treatment Plant, Kampung Kuantan Firefly Park, Sungai Congkak, and Semenyih 2 Water Treatment Plant, as well as the planting of a Berembang tree and learning about water quality monitoring.

This is their first time participating in this challenge, and through it, they learned the importance of conserving water and keeping the river clean, as the amount of usable water in the world today is only around 3%, and it is difficult to maintain this percentage. For that reason, they took up this challenge to raise awareness of water conservation by reducing the water footprint.

“The Water Vanguards Challenge is a treasure hunt activity, that focuses solely on water and river conservation activities. Along with the answer sheets, we were given a passport that contained a map with tagged locations of the eight stations.

“We were tested with questions and activities primarily focusing on the types of botanical plants and their purpose in a wetland, phytoremediation process, types of wetland birds found, water cycle process, nature-based solutions purpose and importance, replication of water filtration process using raw materials, water footprint measures, and purpose of wetlands in achieving water and river conservation targets and goals,” said Dharshini, who was the group leader for the APU team.

According to her, they enjoyed participating in this challenge even though the majority of them are in IT-related courses. Nevertheless, the modules they studied are somewhat relevant and applicable to the activities.

“We gained a wealth of knowledge and experience, as well as future career opportunities throughout the challenge. What we once thought was a loose connection between IT and environmental conservation is now clear: Building with Nature (BwN) is the future of technology,” she added.

The team are eager to participate in and host future events, as well as to remain committed to combating climate change by collaborating with many other organisations while broadening their learning horizons and embracing sustainability and green practices that benefit our mother earth, as well as influence the youth and hope that future generations will do the same.