DM gears up for Clean Up the World 2010

The Waste Management Department of Dubai Municipality is gearing up for the launch of Clean Up the World campaign 2010 during the month of October. The activities of the country's largest voluntary clean up drive, which is in its seventeenth year, will be officially announced during a press conference later this month.

Dubai Municipality is keen to participate in the annual event with various cities in the world in order to disseminate environmental awareness and education in the community to maintain the cleanliness of the environment through active and meaningful participation. It is expected to launch the campaign with the participation of many educational institutions and local departments and various sectors in the emirate and those interested in environmental protection.

This was stated by Hassan Makki, Director of Waste Management Department and the Head of the Clean Up the World Team. He said the department is getting ready for the official announcement of the campaign and the events and associated activities during a press conference to be hosted by hotel Dusit Thani, key sponsor of the campaign. "We have decided that the campaign slogan for this year will be "Communities Care for the Nature."

Makki said that this annual event is considered integral to the functions of the Department on environmental issues and in addressing them and raising awareness and disseminating right environmental culture among the members of the community in the Emirate in light of the worsening environmental problems which has become a danger to the health and safety of the society.

He noted that the Clean Up the World is a global environmental campaign and is one of the most important awareness campaigns organized every year worldwide by Clean Up the World, the Australia-based Programme and UNEP, which aims to gather volunteers to work together for a massive campaign to clean up the environment together with a focus on raising awareness of decision makers and local and global communities on issues related to the environment and develop strategies for the sustainable management of waste.

Hussain Ghulam Hussain, Head of Administrative Support and Customers Section and General Coordinator of the campaign said the Clean Up The World has, over the past years, achieved positive results in educating young people the importance of maintaining a clean environment and developing their knowledge and providing them with comprehensive concepts for the environment to be able and qualified as leaders of the future for volunteering in the environmental field.

More than 6,000 students from various public and private educational institutions in the Emirate of Dubai, and more than 8,000 volunteers from the staff of government and private sector companies have participated in the events and activities of the campaign last year. The campaign has also succeeded in raising the level of environmental awareness and growing a sense of social responsibility among many members of the community and strengthening the role of educational institutions in the emirate in participating in such voluntary environmental campaigns organized by the Waste Management Department annually.

Abdullah Al Ghafari, Head of Customer Services Unit in the Waste Management Department said the Clean Up the World campaign provides the right platform for all segments of the society to participate in an environmental event of utmost importance that focuses on the importance of joint work between different sectors, various local departments and educational institutions to achieve its noble objective of a cleaner local environment and develop the spirit of volunteerism among all members of the society considering that cleanliness of the environment is one of the priorities and responsibilities of individual members.

The campaign comes within the framework of the Waste Management Department to introduce the community of its responsibility towards the environment and maintaining cleanliness and environmental awareness among all members of the society to reach the long-term aim  of an enlightened society that has marked the details of its daily life with sound and positive environmental practices and behaviors thus achieving the objectives of the Waste Management Department towards maintaining a clean environment and the vision of Dubai Municipality of creating an excellent city that provides the essence of success and comfort of living. 

"Say Yes to a Clean Al Fahidi" campaign launched

Dubai, 22 March 2009: Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, Jassim Darwish, Secretary General of UAE Municipalities, and senior officials of the municipality took to Al Fahidi street on Sunday to ceremoniously clean the street heralding the launch of an innovative environmental drive called "Say YES to a Clean Al Fahidi." They also distributed flyers to shop-owners and residents in the area explaining the significance of keeping their surroundings clean.

The month long campaign, which follows a similar campaign in Naif Area late last year, is aimed at restoring the past glory of a number of busy streets in the old Dubai.

Launching the campaign at a specially designated location in front of Astoria Hotel in Al Fahidi Street, Lootah said the clean-up drive aims at rooting out unhealthy practices that spoil the beautiful image of the city and transforming the busy area into a cleaner place that suits the name and fame of Dubai.

He said the campaign will create awareness among the residents about general cleanliness by asking them not to throw dirt, cigarette butts and other wastes on the roads and stop spitting in public places, in addition to discouraging the practice of hanging clothes on the balconies deforming the good image of the city.

Lootah, who appealed the public to support the drive by actively participating in the campaign, said similar campaigns would soon be taken up in such areas of the city as Al Ghubaibah, Al Sabkha, Al Karama, Al Qusais and Al Qouz.

The environment drive, which consists of several social activities, will be involving people of different categories in the society including residents and traders in the area.

The activities include road shows involving people who are present in the area at the time of the show and long-term social activities aimed at educating the public. The public awareness campaign also includes publishing and broadcasting advertisements in local newspapers and radio. The Municipality has already started publishing advertisements in newspapers in different languages and has put up outdoor advertisements in Al Fahidi street.

Furthermore, there will be a Clean Store Contest, which will run from 22 March to 21 April 2009. The winning store will be judged based on the general cleanliness in the store, avoiding eating, drinking and smoking inside it, the store owners' efforts in reducing the use of plastic bags, how do they limit displaying goods outside the stores, and their endeavours in rooting out litter on the pavement close to the store.

Printed materials on the significance of the campaign will be distributed to the public for three days before the start of the campaign and advertisements will be placed on buildings and main streets in Al Fahidi area.

The road shows that will be held from 22 March to 21 April will involve 12 people who will go round the streets wearing T-shirts printed with the campaign logo. In addition, there will be stilt walkers, stage shows and contests for choosing the cleanest building.

DM honours participants of Clean Up campaign

Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality said it is important to incorporate the principle of cooperation and joint coordination among establishments as far as environmental matters are concerned.
"It is also important to activate the participation of individuals in environmental programmes and activities organized by the Municipality to create environmental awareness among different categories of the public towards major environmental issues that concern the whole society," he said.
Lootah was speaking at a ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Hotel last week to honour the sponsors and participants of Clean Up the World 2008 campaign organized by the Municipality during 18 - 21 November last year with the participation of nearly 20,000 volunteers, who collected more than 4,150 tonnes of waste.
The ceremony was also attended by Eng. Abdullah Rafia, Assistant Director General for Environmental and Public Health Services Sector, Eng. Hassan Makki, Director of Waste Management Department and Head of the Campaign Team, Yaqoub Al Ali, Coordinator of the Campaign and a number of senior officials of the Municipality, in addition to representatives of local government departments and private establishments, NGOs, and people of different nationalities who participated in the campaign.
Those who were honoured in the ceremony included the main sponsors Al Naboodah, Al Habtoor Group, Zenath Recycling & Waste Management LLC, Gulf Eternit Industries and Grand Hyatt.
Lootah said the strategic objectives the Municipality had placed for this campaign have been achieved by huge public participation. "The campaign has become a platform for practical cooperation between establishments and individuals concerned with environment inside and outside the Municipality. The participation of people is increasing year after year, especially the support of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Water was vital in the success of the programmes," he said.
Lootah pointed out that the number of participants rose to 20,000 this time, which was only 200 in 1993. "We had a wide range of participation from different walks of life, among them the most notable was the participation of more than 6,500 students from the government and private schools in the emirate," he said.
Lootah said the support of the media was very significant as the different channels of media and the newspapers gave extensive coverage to the event.
During the ceremony he also launched a special website for the campaign called www.cleanuptheworld.dm.ae.
Hassan Makki said the campaign, inaugurated by the Minister of Environment and Water Dr. Ahmed Rashid Bin Fahd at Shindagha Heritage Village on November 18, focused on creating awareness among the young generation on protecting environment as well as enhancing knowledge on environment and pollution so that children become leaders in the future qualified to carry on the task of awareness creation.
He said that this year 6,500 students from 79 government schools and 31 private schools participated the Clean Up The World campaign. "In addition, more than 12,650 volunteers representing 309 private companies and 16 local departments participated in the activities of the campaign. Construction companies contributed by transporting more than 3,000 tonnes of clean sand to fill up the ground at beaches," he said.
Makki said the participation of different nationalities, especially Indians and Filipinos, was highly significant in the success of the campaign.
Yaqoub Al Ali noted that the campaign was associated with a number of awareness programmes on different environmental issues, especially throwing litter. "The awareness programmes included workshops on reducing and recycling waste, collection of used items from employees, painting on environment, Market for bags in place of plastic, workshop for making useful things from waste, information leaflets, radio contests, lectures and workshops in schools, field visits for students to recycling factories, in addition to photography contests in coordination with Filipino Photographers Association," he said.