Today we passed by Minamata Eco Park. The area under the park is full of mercury. On top of the mercury is a garden that consists of more than 500 types of roses.


Next, we went to Minamata Disease Museum and we watched a video regarding what caused the outbreak of Minamata disease.



After which, we went to National Minamata Disease Information Centre. We saw the photographs of the Minamata disease patients and we also had an interview with one lady. Her family members suffered from Minamata disease, she told us she had mixed feelings because she was very sad that her loved ones had passed away and she could not do anything to stop the disposal of mercury into the sea.



The last destination of the day was Eco Net. This was the place where we learned how to use cooking oil to make soap. The person-in-charge also showed us a video regarding the synthetic soap and non-synthetic soap. The experiment shown in the video was a tank separated into two, which has three fishes in each half of the tank. One half consists of synthetic soap while another consists of non-synthetic soap. The fishes in the tank that was being contaminated with synthetic died within 10 seconds while the other tank with non-synthetic killed none of the fish. This showed us that synthetic soap is very harmful and can lead to deaths.



Hui Tong