Video: Dubai Municipality celebrates World Environment Day 2022 with competitions, awareness programmes

Dubai: Dubai Municipality has joined the world in celebrating World Environment Day 2022, under the slogan, ‘Only One Earth’. Organised annually by the United Nations, this annual event aims to bring communities together to raise awareness on environmental issues, inspire society to unite for the planet earth, conserve and sustain natural resources and take urgent action to conserve biodiversity and contribute to highlighting the local environment and important issues.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said: “Dubai Municipality is keen to keep pace with international and national environmental events by spreading a culture of environmental awareness in various fields by developing environmental plans to maintain the quality of the environmental elements and resources.”

“The municipality endeavours to achieve a balance between the sustainability of natural resources and the achievement of sustainable development goals. This year, we have diversified the celebration’s focus to educate community members and discuss the vital matters to change individuals’ behaviour for the better and provide opportunities for interaction and create a qualitative addition to our environment,” he added.

Communicate with nature

Dubai Municipality seeks to provide all requirements that contribute towards enhancing the preservation of the earth and communication with nature through monitoring the natural reserves and the movement of creatures through monitoring devices to track their movements and providing them with a safe haven when they visit the reserves, in addition to controlling the rest of the pollution sources and implementing plans to protect and manage the coasts as well as the wildlife from sources of pollution.

The municipality conducts smart environmental monitoring and control operations. The first environmental satellite, DMSAT, is at the fore in environmental monitoring, which is a scientific achievement for monitoring air quality with the aim of maintaining ecological balance and climate challenges.

Spreading a culture of environmental awareness

Dubai Municipality is keen to spread a culture of environmental awareness in order to enhance the quality of environmental elements in the emirate and improve the environment. It also seeks to achieve a balance between the sustainability of natural resources and the achievement of sustainable development goals, as well as maintaining environmental balance and protecting natural life, which contributes to enriching and supporting the environment in the Emirate of Dubai and encourages community members to adopt positive environmental behaviour.

World Environment Day competition

In conjunction with the World Environment Day, Dubai Municipality has launched this year a short, environmental video competition, in which all segments of society were invited to participate by designing a short one-minute video to highlight the beauty of protected areas and the importance of preserving them or by providing environmental advice.

The competition garnered more than 350 entries, through which 20 participants qualified for the final stage. The video clips that were designed by them will be shown at Fox Cinema at Midriff City Center, in cooperation with Majid Al Futtaim Company. The video clips will be voted on by the qualified audience, their families and the public. The winners, selected through voting, will be honoured later.

Cycling for the Earth

In order to spread environmental awareness, a collaboration was made with Careem (Careem BIKE). Visitors of Careem stations and those who rent Careem bicycles were allowed to ride them free of charge in Dubai today, in solidarity with World Environment Day. There are 147 such stations with a total of 1,447 bicycles.

An additional activity will also be conducted on Jumeirah Beach at 7pm today, June 4, to encourage the public to exercise in nature and reduce the use of vehicles to get around in more sustainable ways.