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A battle to clean the beaches of Bahrain has taken numerous twists and turns this summer leaving environmentalists wringing their hands in frustration.
After a community cleanup, the popular beach at Nurana Island, off Karanah, near Seef, was left spotless, but during July and August the rubbish started piling up again.
Pictures of the debris littering the shores were soon highlighted on social network sites to the dismay of many volunteers who had filled bin bags full of garbage.
Darren Schneider, founder of the green crusaders’ group, Bahrain Beachcombers, said: “The beach was pretty much clean when I left after the last corporate cleanup sponsored by a local bank but now it’s disgusting again.
“It’s sad. I found more oil bottles than ever before and numerous plastic bags. The bags are harmful to animals, especially birds and turtles that mistake them for jelly fish and try to digest them.”
The 46-year-old Australian property manager, from Saar, had worked tirelessly with more than 35 eco-friendly activists of different ages and walks of life, in a bid to cleanup Bahrain’s beaches.
He added: “There is quite a lot of rubbish left by people who just drop it and leave, as well as a lot of dirty nappies left on the ground and not disposed of correctly. This in itself is a health hazard!”
His frustration is understandable. Mr Schneider and his adopted son, Justice, 12, like to spend their free time on the beach with friends, enjoying picnics and swimming in the sea. Having lived in Bahrain for more than 14 years, the pair believe it’s up to caring residents as well as locals to help maintain the cleanliness of the kingdom. He said: “Bahrain Beachcombers all came about from an idea I had as a result of my morning walks in that area with friends when we would spot the amount of rubbish dumped mostly by fishermen and weekend visitors.
“Sometimes we would pick up a bag, hence the idea of organising more people to help us in our quest for a cleaner Bahrain.
“Our aim was simply to try to clean up the coastline and leave nothing behind except our footprints in the sand!”
The recent disappointment forced Mr Schneider to take matters into his own hands yet again, but this time he went straight to the authorities. He emailed images to the local Ministry of the Northern Directorate.
Workers were sent out to clean it up but they only cleaned part of it.
Mr Schneider said: “Half of it is so spotlessly clean that it’s even been raked over but the rest of the beach is dirty. It would be nice to clean up the whole beach.
“Of course it will get dirty again, unless there are fines imposed on the people littering and some sort of monitoring. It shouldn’t be difficult for people to clean up after themselves. Education is the key.
“Perhaps starting awareness classes at schools might help so that children too can learn to care for the environment from an early age.
“One local family, for example, had seen that I was cleaning but their kids still dropped rubbish on the beach. I asked the children to put it in the bins and they did. The father apologised and during one of our beach cleanups, that same family joined us, bringing bags of juices and drinks for the volunteers. It was great to see that we made a positive impact.
“For now, the message is simple; please don’t drop your rubbish on the ground or in the sea. Take it home with you or the very least put it in a bin on your way.”
Mr Schneider hopes to organise another beach cleanup when the weather gets cooler.
For details of upcoming events, visit the Bahrain Beachcombers page on www.facebook.com/bahrainbeachcombers/info
