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Bahrain’s celebration of World Clean Up Day, organised by Cleanup Bahrain, under the patronage of the Capital Governorate attracted 1,752 environmental enthusiasts to 12 beaches across the island where they scavenged and cleaned up some of humanity’s most disregarded and harmful treasures, writes Naman Arora.
On Saturday morning, members of the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) cleaned up the Al Jasra beach, finding everything from cigarette butts, bottle caps and shredded plastic bags to bits of rope.
Kai Miethig from Cleanup Bahrain, who was on hand to dole out biodegradable bags made from potato starch, said: “Last year, the BRFC team had come out to the same beach. Even though it seems cleaner this year, it is still strange how much valuable plastic and PVC that can be repurposed is thrown away. We are trying to find international partners who can find some value in all that we gather. For example, we have at least a couple of kilograms of just high-quality PVC rope, which I am sure someone could reuse or refurnish.”
In the evening, from 4pm to 6pm, volunteers gathered at a dozen beaches, including Karbabad, Karranah, Nurana, Jid Al Haaj, Janusan, Al Jasra, Demistan, Karzakan, Malkiya, Water Garden City, Coastguard beach and Juffair Beach, to clean them up. In total, the volunteers cleaned up 10.27 tonnes of garbage including 1.5 tonnes of plastic in two hours.
Across the world, more than 160 countries participated this year in the Estonian-founded clean-up which started in 2008 when 50,000 people came together and cleaned up the entire country in five hours. In 2018, the organisation went global and organised the first international clean-up day, through the grass-roots efforts of an extensive network of non-government organisations (NGOs), civic groups and institutions.
Last year, the event had attracted about 700 volunteers in Bahrain and almost 18 million people worldwide. Heidi Solba, President of Let’s Do It World, the organisation behind World Clean Up Day explained: “World Clean Up Day harnesses the power of everyday people to achieve incredible things. Its beauty lies in cooperation and collaboration, building bridges between disparate communities and including all levels of society from citizens to business, to government.”
This was evident as GulfWeekly dropped by the Juffair beach, where Bahrainis and expats of all ages were hard at work, gathering bottles, Styrofoam containers, carpets and scrap wood. James, Shendy and Jen from the US Navy Base said: “We were joking that we could have had a party with all the stuff we found today. There was cheese, Styrofoam plates, beverage bottles and lots and lots of Starbucks cups. Our main takeaway today is that human beings are horrible. So we must do our part in cleaning up.”
Meanwhile, others were not quite as despondent. Deekshita Tilli, a Grade 12 student at New Millennium School-DPS reflected: “We need to start cleaning as well as improve our overall consumption habits now. This includes stopping smoking, stopping throwing away bottles at the beaches and in the oceans and control the plastic in your life.”
The Philippine Embassy also brought a team of volunteers, including Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain Alfonso A Ver, who remarked: “We are very glad to join this significant event so that we can make our new home a better place. It’s time to make a stand and clean up our act and environment, starting right here. We hope to do our share today to help and be part of this global movement.”
However, cleaning beaches comes with its own hazards, especially when working with such a diverse set of volunteers, amongst whom not all may have the right tools to do the job safely. The Bahrain Red Crescent Society was on hand to assist with any injuries. They noted that there had been a number of cuts and gashes, courtesy of the broken glass found at the beaches.
BRCS volunteers Nadia Abudrees, a nurse at Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo Community Medical Centre and Dr Nilofer Jahromi, head of BRCS’s Environmental and Agriculture team, said: “We have even had someone in Asghar who injured their eye. While it’s great that people want to be a part of the movement, they should be careful and wear proper shoes and gloves. And of course, put on sunscreen and drink lots of water.”
While handing out gloves and water, Kai, ever the environmental evangelist, noted that while it’s great to have people come together on this day, the effort has to be consistent and year-round. People should invest in some gloves and biodegradable bags, to be kept in their car and used whenever they visit a beach and notice floating garbage.
Bahrain has the distinction of being one of the highest per capita waste generators worldwide generating 1.67kg to 1.80kg per person per day, with daily waste generation exceeding 4,500 tonnes. More than seven per cent of this has been in the form of plastic, which the government hopes to curb with its plastic ban initiatives, including providing Bahraini families with biodegradable garbage bags and banning the import of plastic bags.
While these initiatives are significant steps in the right direction, organisations in Bahrain and around the world are looking for sustainable solutions of recycling the plastic and prevent it from ending up back in the oceans.
Governor of the Capital Governorate, Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa said in the press conference before the event: “We cannot guarantee the places will remain clean for a long time because the sea is already polluted so lots of waste will wash back up on the shore.
“However, among the most important initiatives included in the Green Capital project are reducing pollution in the capital through conducting campaigns to measure the emission rate of gases in several areas within the capital, and encouraging private companies to establish green teams within institutions to spread the culture of environmental protection,”
Cleanup Bahrain is also conducting in-school education sessions, to infuse a culture of environmental consciousness and sustainable behaviour in Bahrain’s future leaders.
Over at Demistan beach, amidst predominantly Bahraini environmentalists, husband-wife duo Ali Alqaseer, who is the co-founder and president of Cleanup Bahrain, and Ruqaya Hashem from Isa Town, added: “We asked children if they knew the dangers of plastic and were surprised by their depth of knowledge on the subject. A group of young girls told us they were so excited for the event they barely slept the day before. Other conversations were about further collaboration and environmental workshop requests for different entities and organisations as well as general questions about how Bahrain handles waste. We see a big drive towards change and the future definitely looks brighter.”
