Nico and Aurora attend International Beach Clean
up day for the Namibian Dolphin Project.
'Just say no to trash!': This is the first
message coming from the Ocean Week that has started last Saturday. In
fact, in spite of the cold and rainy morning, more than 100 Walvis Bay
residents attended the Beach Cleaning Day, which was organised by the NACOMA
project as the first event of the Ocean
Week. In addition, there were representatives from the Army, press, the Ministry
of Fishery, conservation projects (NDP, CETN) and lots of passionate school
kids from elementary to high schools attending the event. It is particularly to
the school childred that the message of 'Just
say to no to Trash' is directed.
Under the banner of this message, Mrs. Sue Roux (CETN
– Coastal Environment Trust of Namibia) welcomed all the participants in a
crowded chamber at the Municipality and presented some of the terrible effects
of pollution worldwide; yellow rivers, plastic seas and marine animals wrapped
in nets or intoxicated by oil were some of the striking images shown. After the
introductions, groups of children and adults spent their morning together
cleaning the coastline of the town: from the pump station in the south to
Langstrand in the north.
Each group was provided with gloves and
recycling bags to sort glass, plastic, metal and paper. Unfortunately (or
fortunately?) kilos and kilos of trash were collected: nets, clothes, cans,
glass and plastic bottles, thousands of metal lids, cigarette' packs, tires,
buoys, newspapers, toys, car windows, bricks, wires and much more were found
along Walvis Bay beaches and lagoons. The very same areas used by jackals,
flamingos and herons! Besides the amount of litter removed from the shores, one
the most important goals of this event was to make as many people as possible
aware that Namibian beaches are unfortunately not only made of sand and that
trash has an high impact on everybody's life and on our Earth. Hopefully the
kids who joined the event learnt that each one of us is responsible for his own
trash, and that disposing of it in the proper way does make the difference...
and in doing so, it won't be necessary to wake up early on Saturdays to clean
beaches anymore!
A big thanks to the NACOMA project for organising
this day as part of a global initiative.