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Cleanliness drive at capital’s Mina Port

The campaign aimed at spreading awareness among people to keep the city clean by not littering, and dumping garbage at only designated places.

The event was kicked off by Australian Ambassador to the UAE Jeremy Bruer, Japanese Ambassador to the UAE Takuma Hatano and EAD Secretary-General Majid Al Mansouri.

The theme of the campaign was “Our Climate, Our Actions and Our Future — I Care, Do You?”

Al Mansoori said, “We run many programmes throughout the year but our purpose can only be achieved with the help and coordination of all people. They need to understand the importance of the environment and its preservation.”

Engineer Emad Saad, Senior Editor of ‘Murshid’ magazine brought out by the Abu Dhabi Municipality, said, “Every year, I take part in it and have been participating for the past 10 years. I came here with my children to impart them knowledge about how important the environment is for us and how we can preserve it for our benefit.”

Ambassador Hatano of Japan said, “This is a very important activity to keep the city clean and an important philosophy of cleanliness to develop the attitude of people ahead of the Abu Dhabi Plan 2030. We are here to spread the message to create a friendly environment.”

The chairman of Japanese community in Abu Dhabi, Haruo Noichi, said, “We are happy to be here for the purpose. Our Japanese people are very conscious about the environment as it is a popular fashion and trend in our country. So, we want to spread this cleanliness message among others and strive to make them understand its worth.”

Thabit Zahran Al Abdesssalaam, Director of Marine Environment Research Centre, Abu Dhabi, said, “We carry out these awareness programmes 10 to 15 times in a year and we also spread message among students distributing literature highlighting the preservation of environment. We also coordinate with Abu Dhabi Municipality for the purpose. Most of the time, we find in the sea ropes, used fishing nets, plastic bags, cigarette butts, tea bags, which people throw without thinking how it will harm the marine. These things badly harm the environment. The people should avoid littering in the sea.”

Rebecca Boston, senior environmental consultant at Hyder Consulting Middle East, said, “Hyder Consulting make continuing efforts both, internally, through our environmental management systems and, externally, through enhancing the sustainability of the projects that we deliver. Forty-five of our enthusiastic and environmentally-conscious team members joined others to help the EAD in its cleanup drive and raise environmental awareness.”

• UAE