Dubai : Konkan Yuva Joins Municipality’s 'Clean Up The World’ Campaign

Media Release

Dubai, Nov 1: Konkan Yuva members completed their ‘Bhoomi Samrakshan’ drive, by joining the Dubai Municipality’s ‘Clean Up The World’ campaign on Friday Oct 29, 2010.

‘Bhoomi Samrakshan’ is a social initiative started by Konkan Yuva (KY) to stand united for all environment-related issues. The month-long campaign initiated by KY members took off with task of cleaning the Jadaf cemetery, which went on for over two weeks, and was completed by the youth group by joining hands with Dubai Municipality’s ‘Clean Up The World’ campaign.

Over 60 volunteers from KY group committed a total of over 500 man-hours in a month, fully dedicated to environment awareness. The campaign’s last leg was marked by a massive turnout by KY members during the wee hours of Oct 29, 2010 at Mamzar beach, to join over 1000 other volunteers from across the country. This has been the longest ever campaign undertaken by the group to highlight environmental issues.

President of the group, Stephen Nazareth, said, “we did not want our ‘Bhoomi Samrakshan’ campaign to remain merely a symbolic gesture, by getting together for a single day and forgetting the issue the very next day. Hence, we dedicated the whole month to the green drive. For us, charity begins at home, and as in previous years. We ensured that the non-operational Jadaf Cemetery was ready for All Souls Day. KY members collected over 40 kilos of wildly grown shrubs from the non- frequented Jadaf Cemetery. We wanted to convey the message that the people who were buried in the cemetery are not forgotten, and we have decided to run this campaign year on year. This year also marks our entry to support international programmes, which have synergy with our goals. UAE has the largest carbon foot print in the world, and when Dubai Municipality announced the ‘Clean Up The World’ campaign, we instantly decided to join the campaign. We as a group, find these initiatives by the authorities in encouraging team work in finding lasting solutions for the growing waste problem, to be worthy of support. I am thrilled by the dedication of the members who joined Bhoomi Samrakshan’s final leg with great enthusiasm at Mamzar beach to complete the campaign.

KY members have taken a oath this year to the effect that they will make sure that all the events they undertake, including cultural programmes, picnics, fund raising programmes etc., are completely green. We will focus on issues like reuse, reduction and recycling of waste. A special focus will be laid on the materials we use for our programmes and events.”

Dubai Municipality co-coordinator, Mamoonser, said he is delighted with such a massive turnout, commenting that it was a big day for environment. “This is a real community event where the authorities join hands with the public, various groups and communities, to address the cause and to ensure that we do our best for the environment. I would like to thank Konkan Yuva group for joining us in the drive and hope more communities join us next year,” he said.

‘Clean Up The World’ campaign organized by the environment department of the Municipality, is the largest volunteer clean up drive in the country. The campaign, which originated in Australia, was the brainchild of Ian Kiernan, who organized a drive to clean up Sydney harbour in 1989. He was moved by the significant amount of marine litter that he had noticed while sailing in the BOC Challenge solo around-the-world race in 1987. Encouraged by the harbour clean up drive, in which over 40,000 people participated, he had organized ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ the following year.

In 1993, with support and funding from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the California-based EGBAR foundation, ‘Clean Up the World’ was launched with 30 million people from 80 countries participating in the first clean-up. Since then, it has been held every year and the public participation has not stopped growing. In 2001, 37.5 million people from 128 countries demonstrated their commitment to a healthy environment through various clean up drives throughout the world.