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By REBECCA TORR
BAHRAIN
is taking part in one of the biggest environmental
protection operations in the Arab world.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 22 Arab countries
have been working on a waste observation coastal campaign,
in celebration of Arab Environmental Day, which is held on
October 14 every year.
The campaign, entitled Waste Observation on Arabic Coasts,
is being organised by the
Libyan Medical Waste Club
and the Arab website Environmental News, at
www.4eco.com
The aim of the project is for each NGO to survey the
quantity and type of rubbish that is being left on their
country's beaches and to send this information to the Libyan
Medical Waste Club.
The club will then collate the information from each country
and compile a report, which will be used to help evaluate
the size of the problem of random rubbish dumping on beaches
and its effects on the environment.
Bahrain's
Environment Friends Society, together with the help of more
than 140 students, took up the campaign and collected,
sorted and quantified waste from Hawar Island and Budaiya
beach.
"I feel good that the Environment Friends Society and other
NGOs have been able to achieve something together," said
society president Khawla Al Muhannadi.
"We are not part of an official organisation and this is the
first time we are all working together and it gives me great
inspiration and hope that NGOs will continue to work
together for the future of the environment in the Arab
world.
"Celebrating Arab Environment Day is not about getting
together for a party, it is about doing something tangible
to improve the situation and this campaign is the biggest
celebration in the Arab world."
The society and 40 students from the National Youth Strategy
Youth Voice Campaign worked on
Hawar
Island.
More than 100 Philippine School students, aged 13 to 16
years, and their teachers worked on the Budaiya shore.
The society and their helpers collected rubbish from each
beach, as instructed by the Libyan Medical Waste Club.
They collected the rubbish and then categorised it into main
types (such as cigar and cigarette butts, food packing
materials, glass and bottle caps, plastic bottles, tin
bottles, cups and plates, bags, straws, clothes, wood,
syringe, medical equipment, medicine bottles, other medical
wastes, paints bottles, oil cans, tyres, other items), then
counted and weighed them where possible.
"You have to separate everything. Then we documented how
many there were and their collective weight.
She said that by the end of the month the results from each
Arab country will be sent to the
Libyan Medical Waste Club
and that the report will be completed by the end of next
month.
The report will help the club see where the waste is moving
and it will give them the chance to do comparative studies. |
