APU Team Named The 1st Place Winner In The Water Vanguards Challenge 2023

Dharshini, Rajveen, Chung and Keong raise public awareness about water conservation

From left: Rajveen Kaur, Datin Daria Mathew (WWF-Malaysia Freshwater Team Leader), Dharshini Ramesh Kumar, Chung Wei Qi, and Keong Yan Qi pose with their WWF tokens.

Water is essential for life and nature conservation. Freshwater, in particular, is a scarce natural resource that is critical for human survival because it serves as a major source of drinking water as well as being important for local ecosystems and native flora and fauna.

However, water conservation is a complex problem because there are several potential causes/drivers that can be a hindrance, such as unsustainable consumption patterns, pollution, loss of green cover, and so on.

The WWF-Malaysia Freshwater Conservation organised the Water Vanguards Challenge 2023 to educate the future generation through a study tour and treasure hunt activity combined with a water challenge held at Putrajaya Wetlands Park from 6th to 8th 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.

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Dharshini Ramesh Kumar (Cybersecurity), Rajveen Kaur (Financial Technology), Chung Wei Qi (Software Engineering), and Keong Yan Qi (Intelligent Systems) from APU won the Water Vanguards Challenge, taking home RM 800 Touch & Go e-wallet and popular bookstore voucher.

This is their first time participating in this challenge, and through it, they learned the importance of conserving water and keeping the river clean, because the amount of usable water in the world today is around 3%, and it is difficult to maintain this percentage.

For that reason, they accepted this challenge to raise awareness of water conservation in order to reduce the water footprint.

Their team was nominated champions for being the first group to complete the water search challenge at Putrajaya Wetlands in three hours and with the highest score.

“The Water Vanguards Challenge is basically 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 is the group leader for the APU team.

According to her, they enjoyed participating in this challenge despite the fact that the majority of them are in IT-related courses and the modules they studied are somewhat relevant and applicable during 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 said.

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Dharshini added that her long-term goal is to be a volunteer who contributes to a sustainable future by working alongside many other organisations, and she plans to participate in another event/competition in the future to expand her networks and gain new knowledge in order to embrace green practises that benefit both our mother earth and future generations.

Her teammates Rajveen, Chung, and Keong also want to be volunteers in the future to help society and the environment while learning new skills and gaining new experiences, while also contributing to a greener, more sustainable future in which technology and nature can coexist without compromising either side.

They 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 dedicated to achieving sustainable development goals by 2030.

Dharshini, Rajveen, Chung, and Keong, on the other hand, would like to broaden their learning horizons and embrace sustainability and green practises that benefit our mother earth, as well as influence the youth and hope that future generations will do the same.