PASIR GUDANG, 20 August 2014 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Community Transformation Center (UTM-CTC) organized a one day engagement programme on  ‘Water Issues: Water and Me (WASH-WaM)’ in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

The general aim of  this programme is to create and enhance primary and secondary school students’ awareness of water hygiene and the environment.
The Director of UTM-CTC, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur Naha Abu Mansor said twenty-two selected schools in the Pasir Gudang community area were involved with UTM’s water experts from the Institute of Environmental & Water Resource Management (IPASA), who shared their expertise in water related issues.

“There were two main objectives of this program. The first objective was to implement a practice-based engagement through surveys to produce ‘Community Engagement Performance Index’ for community service activities. Results of the survey will be used as a parameter for the effectiveness of the provided social service.”

“The second objective was to give students exposure on how to analyze tap water at home through a simple water analysis technique. In fact, at the engagement. students tested the cleanliness level of tap water samples taken from their homes,” she said. For comparison, several water samples were taken from  rivers and lakes in Johor. Parameters used during this test were temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and turbidity.

Other activities in this program include talks on environmental hygiene and poster competition.

At the end of the program, students were required to respond to a measurement engagement tool to gather and generate data to develop a Community Engagement Metric Performance Index in order to measure the performance of community service.

“To ensure continuity and sustainability, continued sessions will be held in September 2014, with the involvement of 15 schools in the Johor Bahru district” The program will be facilitated by UTM students from several faculties.

Such activities are  expected to increase the level of motivation and interest in learning Science and Mathematics amongst school students.

The program is to promote the university to the community and create a meaningful social engagement for the betterment of community through UTM’s community engagement motto “Engaging towards a better future.