- Alfred Fornah
SIERRA LEONE CITIZENS JOIN WORLD CLEAN UP DAY!
Today, Sierra Leone joined 158 other nations on World Clean Up Day with 200+ Freetown citizens joining Government Minsiters, the Mayor of Freetown, the EU Ambassador, British High Commissioner and Irish Embassy to clean up Lumley Aberdeen Beach taking part in a European Union sponsored big beach clean up to beat plastic pollution in Sierra Leone.
Volunteers from the Sierra Leone Cliamte Change Consortium, Society 4 Climate Change Communications, Sierra Leone School Green Club, Shout Climate Change Africa, Sierra Leone Red Cross, Hope 4 Ebola Orphans and pupils from the Aberdeen Municipal School joined the Minister of Lands and the Environment and the Minister for Tourism spending the day cleaning up the beautiful Lumley beach.
After the big beach clean up refreshements were served to everyone who took part and we heard from the assembled VIPs. EU Ambassador, Tom Vens,
sponsor of the beach clean up, explained the purpose of the day:
"We organize this event not only to clean this beautiful beach but also to raise awareness about protecting our beaches and our oceans from plastic which causes death to millions of the sea's creatures"
Freetown City Mayor, Yvonne Aki Sawyerr told the crowd:
"Environmental protection and management is one of our cities top priorities and it is the responsibility of all of us to not drop dirty in the first place."
The Minister of Lands and the Environment Dr Sandy said:
"Plastic waste is a menace to the environment and is one of the Governments prorities under the new direction agenda. I commend the Eurpoean Unions suport for this initaive and our own civil society organizations for making this event a success."
Minister of Tourism, Madam Memunata Pratt congratulated the EU and the Consortium 4 Climate Change and said:
"This great exercise will help rebrand Sierra Leone and my Ministry is committed to campaign for clean beaches and smart cities for sustainable tourism and next month we're organizing a clena up of Bonthe Island.
Guy Warrington, British High Commisoner, explained:
"Plastic Poluttion is a global problem. Sierra Leone can learn from other African nations good practice - Rwanda, for example, has recently banned single -use plastic."
Our citizens and youth coming together to take care of our environment are a perfect illustration enhancing Sierra Leone’s natural capital and giving our vital tourist industry a boost.
We say to Salone: Imagine how beautiful our beaches will be if we all do our bit – reducing, reusing and recycling - to keep them as clean and plastic free as you can see.
Meanwhile, World Clean Up Day started 10 years ago in Estonia, when 4% of the population came out to clean the entire country of illegally dumped waste, in a matter of hours. This captured the imaginations of people worldwide, who were inspired to follow suit with the same ambitious ‘one country, one day’ formula.
This was the beginning of a global bottom-up civic movement, Let's Do It! World, which has spread around the globe
