Clean UAE drive collects tonnes of waste

Abu Dhabi: Hundreds of students, employees and individuals gathered Thursday morning on Al Ras Al Akhdar beach in Abu Dhabi to take part in the seventh UAE clean-up drive.

The annual campaign is organised by the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) at 44 sites all over the country.

The event attracted some 23,000 participants from all seven emirates. Some 125 tonnes of waste was collected from 44 sites.

"The UAE is a beautiful country with a unique ecosystem shared by its inhabitants. However, it is currently facing man-made and natural environmental challenges. Aside from the impact of fast paced economic and our enormous waste output, the country also faces the effects of climate change, desertification and habitat loss," said Dr Abdul Menim Bellah from the EEG.

"It's our duty to know that the environment is under threat and all of us can contribute in protecting it. This is the message that we would like to send across today," he said.

"No effort is too small or too big when it comes to environmental protection; we all must do our share in ensuring that future generations will enjoy a healthy and safe environment," Dr Bellah said.

Wafa Ahmad Shaheen, vice-president of the Friends of the Environment Society in Abu Dhabi told Gulf News "the UAE government is known for its future initiatives to serve society in all fields; environmental concern is notable also."

Awareness

The campaign aims to spread environmental awareness between people "we are ringing the bells to wake people up about environmental pollution as we are working on developing the country; cleaning the beaches is just part of the effort to maintain general awareness," she said.

Fawzya Al Mahmoud, manager of the environmental education department at the Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD) told Gulf News "we are not targeting only students to maintain environmental awareness; we are trying to deliver our message to every member of society and the new generation in particular."

A survey carried out by the EAD last year to check people's awareness towards a number of environmental issues found that 48.9% of people had an awareness of environmental issues.

"I think we are still in the beginning of a mission to make people aware about their only shelter they have - the environment," Fawzya said.

"We are not pleased with this percentage and more effort must be done to bring real awareness to people," she added.