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Bahrain’s environmentalists are gearing up for the fourth-ever World Cleanup Day in a bid to promote sustainability and revitalise three of the kingdom’s beaches … and spend an afternoon making a difference.
World Cleanup Day this year is set for Saturday (September 17) and is the latest iteration of an annual social action programme aimed at combating the global waste problem.
In Bahrain, this year’s cleanups will be spearheaded by Clean Up Bahrain (CUB) and will take place at Janabiya beach, Malkiya beach and Nurana Island.
“Last year, we had restricted the clean-up to just one beach to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection, but this year three teams will be deployed to clean up beaches identified by our inspection team,” CUB co-founder and president Ali Alqaseer told GulfWeekly.
“We are expecting the support of between 500 to 700 volunteers, or more.”
Last year, the organisation had focused on cleaning up Malkiya beach and around 200 volunteers picked up 500kg of garbage in two hours.
With 2020’s World Cleanup Day cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, CUB’s record year was 2019, when 1,752 volunteers cleaned up 10,273.5kg of garbage from 12 beaches, of which 1,563kg was plastic and 8,710kg was general waste.
“This year, we are also expecting teams from a number of private sector companies joining the efforts,” Ali added.
“We are working with local municipalities to co-ordinate the cleanup efforts.”
The cleanup will take place from 4pm to 6pm on Saturday and those interested can register through the link available on CUB’s Instagram page.
This year, enterprising grassroots activators also have the option to clean up their own neighbourhood and share photographs and reports with CUB.
“Volunteers don’t need to bring anything to our designated beach clean-ups in Janabiya, Malkiya and Nurana,” Ali added.
“We will provide all the cleaning equipment as well as refreshments – it’s the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon making a difference.”
Across the world, more than 180 countries participate in the Estonian-founded World Cleanup Day, which started in 2008 when 50,000 people came together and cleaned up the entire country in five hours.
In 2018, World Cleanup Day’s parent organisation Let’s Do It 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.
Since Bahrain started celebrating World Cleanup Day, the nature of the waste has also changed. Last year, CUB observed more and more disposable masks washing up on shore.
This is part of a larger problem of illegal dumping of rubbish which destroys marine life and takes a toll on coastlines.
Although cleanups go a long way in revitalising beaches, CUB has also been stepping up its efforts to ‘green up Bahrain’ with tree planting projects in various parts of the kingdom.
For more information and to register, follow @cleanupbahrain on Instagram.
