4-day Clean up the World campaign to kick off today

Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, in the presence of the UAE Minister of Environment and Water, Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahd, will open today (Tue, 27 Oct) the 4-day voluntary massive clean-up drive in Dubai that will see nearly 22,000 volunteers joining hands to drive home the green message.

The campaign, which is observed this year under the banner “Communities Uniting to Clean up and Conserve the Environment,” is held from 27 to 30 October at various sites across the emirate.

Hassan Makki, Director of Waste Management Department at the Municipality, said the campaign, which is organized for the 16th consecutive year by the Municipality, is the largest volunteer clean up drive in the country in terms of participation and collection of waste.

He said the opening day event, which will begin at 10am at the Parking Area of Mamzar Park, will also include environment-themed stage presentation by school students, signing an agreement on collecting religious publications and newspapers from mosques, launch of a campaign on avoiding throwing cigarette butts on public places, recreation programmes for students through workshops, environment painting competition for school students, clean up activities at the Fishermen's Village and honouring and distribution of certificates and souvenirs to the participants.

The second day’s (Wednesday, 28 October) activities, to be held at Al Mamzar area, will include clean up by volunteers from government educational institutions. The programme will include distribution of litter bins to schools, abandoned vehicles removal campaign in coordination with the operations unit and honouring participants and distribution of certificates and souvenirs.

On the third day (Thursday, 29 October), volunteers from private schools, colleges, and universities will participate in the clean up programme at Al Sufooh. Also on this day, a competition will be held on can collection for private schools, in addition to undertaking pest control activities, workshops on pest at all waste bins in coordination with the operations unit and honouring participants and distribution of certificates and souvenirs.

The last day of the campaign (Friday, 30 October) will see thousands of volunteers from the general public including private company staff, non-governmental organizations, community groups and private entities joining hands in cleaning up Nadd Al Shiba Area. Also on Friday, a clean up programme will be organized by the Filipino community and employees of Dnata at Mamzar Beach.

The awareness programmes, organized on the sidelines of the campaign at one of the shopping malls, include workshops for general public on recycling and reducing waste, environmental painting, Municipality Souq for plastic bags, environmental workshops on making usable materials from waste, distribution of saplings to public to encourage horticulture and its role in curbing climate change, and distribution of awareness publications.

The educational programmes for schools include broadcasting campaign programmes on school radios, lectures and workshops for school students on the importance of waste reduction, arranging visits for students to waste recycling factories and natural sanctuaries in the emirate of Dubai, comprehensive educational programme for schools on the role of waste reduction in protecting the environment and curbing the phenomenon of climate change and waste recycling competition for schools and public.

The Municipality's Environmental Awareness Section will organize special awareness programmes for Dubai Municipality staff. The programmes include inviting employees to participate in tree plantation campaign in different areas in coordination with the Public Parks and Horticulture Department, campaign for used materials collection from employees for distributing them to the needy among the employees, email contest, announcement on the occasion and its activities, providing information on the occasion through email, sending SMS to Municipality mobile users and placing the campaign theme on the PCs in the Municipality.

The main areas for clean up activities will be Nadd Al Shiba, desert area in Wadi al Amradi, bachelor accommodation areas in Al Quoz, Nadd Al Hamr, Al Khawaneej, Al Aweer area behind Defence Camp, Al Qusais Labour Camp and Ras Al Khor Natural Sanctuary. Other areas include Jaddaf Fishermen's Village, Jumeirah-1 Fishermen's Village, Heritage Village area, Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim open beaches, Hatta Tourist areas, Industrial areas, Jebel Ali Port Free Zone area, Diving Beach and Creek, and labour camps.

A photography competition will also be conducted on the occasion in coordination with FPGL establishment. Some 22,000 high-quality T-shirts and more than 15,000 caps, printed with the campaign’s logo, will be distributed among the volunteers.

The event is supported by Zenath Recycling & Waste Management LLC, Gulf Eternit Industries LLC, Grand Hyatt Dubai, Gulf & Safa Dairies LLC, Western Union, Union Paper Mills, British American Tobacco, Dubal, Alpha Emirates, Dulsco, Al Ain Water, Abela & Co, Fujeirah Plastic Industries, TCS Express, and Trashco.