KARACHI: Volunteers belonging to different organisations participated in a beach clean up to observe the International Coastal Clean-up Day on Saturday.
A beach clean-up activity, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature - Pakistan in partnership with the National Volunteer Programme (NVP) and a beverage company, was conducted at the Sea View beach on Saturday. The activity aimed to create awareness and a need to check the increasing pollution of the world's seas and oceans.
More than 150 volunteers, belonging to NVP participated in this activity, 'Beaches Without Waste.' They included university students, corporate executives, professionals, social activists and members of the digital community. The volunteers cleaned up to 300,000 square meters of the public beach. The litter was collected in separate colour-coded bags for plastic waste, paper waste and other waste, to facilitate recycling as far as possible. The total weight of the wastage was measured at 535 kilogrammes.
Speaking about the activity, Coca-Cola Pakistan General Manager Rizwan U. Khan said, "This activity is a small but significant component of Coca-Cola's global product packaging policy." He said that their campaign, 'World Without Waste,' that was launched on January 19, aims to help bring back a bottle or can for every single one that it sells. He added that the goal was to make recycling more accessible and collect and recycle 100% of the waste by 2030.
Meanwhile, the Green Media Initiatives in collaboration with Hashoo Foundation also conducted a beach cleaning in Karachi on Saturday.
Around 100 students from University of Karachi, Institute of Business Management, Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast), youth and volunteers participated in the event, which was aimed at creating mass awareness about the significance of cleaning coasts and oceans and protecting them from waste, particularly plastic and discharge of sewerage.
Speaking on the occasion, Fuuast Zoology Department chief Seema Naz Siddiqui and other participants applauded Green Media Initiatives' event organizer Shabina Faraz for organising beach cleaning to raise awareness.
Expressing her views, Faraz said, "I would like to thank all participants for playing a leading role in this mega activity besides the students who have come from various NGOs and citizens of Karachi for collecting tonnes of solid and plastic waste from the beach,"
She was of the view that growing pollution in the seas was due to limited awareness amongst masses and lack of proper infrastructure. Faraz said they should use sustainable solution of solid waste and reduce plastic pollution. She invited the media to play its role to create awareness about environmental degradation.
The International Coastal Cleanup Day was started by the Ocean Conservancy in 1986 to engage volunteers in collecting marine debris from the world's waterways. During the cleanup, volunteers act as "citizen scientists," tallying the items they find on data cards.
The information is used to identify the sources of marine debris, examine trends in debris items, and increase awareness about the threats of marine debris. Cleanups may be done along the shore, from watercraft, or underwater.
The ocean covers 71% of the Earth. The ocean helps produce the water we drink and the air we breathe. It absorbs carbon dioxide and lessens the effect of global warming. It also produces food and recreation opportunities for millions of people. Despite its importance, the ocean is still not fully explored or understood.
Additional input from PPI
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2018.
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