Clean Al Fahidi campaign launched

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, Jassim Darwish, Secretary General of UAE Municipalities, and senior officials of the municipality took to Al Fahidi street on Sunday to clean the street and herald the launch of an innovative environmental drive called "Say YES to a Clean Al Fahidi." They also distributed flyers to shop-owners and residents in the area explaining the significance of keeping their surroundings clean.

The month-long campaign, which follows a similar campaign held in Naif Area late last year, is aimed at restoring the past glory of a number of busy streets in the old Dubai.

Launching the campaign at a specially designated location in front of Astoria Hotel in Al Fahidi Street, Lootah said the clean-up drive aims at rooting out unhealthy practices that spoil the beautiful image of the city and transforming the busy area into a cleaner place.

He said the campaign will create awareness among the residents about general cleanliness by asking them not to throw dirt, cigarette butts and other wastes on the roads and stop spitting in public places, in addition to discouraging the practice of hanging clothes on the balconies deforming the good image of the city.

Lootah said similar campaigns would soon be taken up in such areas of the city as Al Ghubaibah, Al Sabkha, Al Karama, Al Qusais and Al Qouz.

The environment drive, which consists of several social activities, will be involving people of different categories in the society including residents and traders in the area.

The activities include road shows involving people who are present in the area at the time of the show and long-term social activities aimed at educating the public. The public awareness campaign also includes publishing and broadcasting advertisements in local newspapers and radio. The Municipality has already started publishing advertisements in newspapers in different languages and has put up outdoor advertisements in Al Fahidi street.

There will be a Clean Store Contest, which will run from 22 March to 21 April 2009. The winning store will be judged based on the general cleanliness in the store, avoiding eating, drinking and smoking inside it, the store owners' efforts in reducing the use of plastic bags, how do they limit displaying goods outside the stores, and their endeavours in rooting out litter on the pavement close to the store.