Minister of Environment to open 4-day clean up drive today

The campaign, which is observed under the banner 'Start Today...Save Tomorrow,' is held from 18 to 21 November at various sites across the emirate.

Hassan Makki, Director of Waste Management Department at the Municipality, said the campaign, which is organised every year by the Municipality, is the largest volunteer clean up drive in the country.

He said the opening day event, which will begin at 10.00 a.m., will also include environment-themed stage presentation by school students, an air show over the Dubai Creek, a performance by Dubai Police Music Band, recreation programmes for students through workshops, Think Tank Magazine Awards programme for students, and the creek clean-up drive by professional divers.

The second day's (Wednesday, 19 Nov) activities, to be held at Nadd Al Hammer, 9th Street, will start from 9.30 am onwards and include clean up by volunteers from government educational institutions. The programme will include clean up activity by government institutions at Nadd Al Hammer, distribution of litter bins to schools, waste paper collection competition for government institutions and awarding of participants and the distribution of certificates and souvenirs. In addition to this, abandoned vehicles removal programme will be held in coordination with the operations unit.

On the third day (Thursday, 20 November), volunteers from private schools, colleges, and universities will participate in can collection competition at Ras Al Khor Bird Sanctuary Area from 9.30am onwards. Also on this day, pest control companies in Dubai will participate in the campaign by undertaking pest control activities in various areas.

The last day of the campaign (Friday, 21 Nov) will see thousands of volunteers from the general public including private company staff, non-governmental organisations, community groups and private entities joining hands in cleaning up Nadd Al Shiba Area and various other sites. Also on Friday, a clean up will be organized by the Filipino community at Mamzar Beach area from 9.15 am onwards.

The awareness programmes, organized on the sidelines of the campaign, will include workshops for general public on recycling and reducing waste, environmental workshops on making usable materials from waste, broadcasting campaign programmes on school radios, collection of used materials, lectures in schools on the importance of waste reduction, and arranging visits for students to waste recycling factories. The Environment and Health Awareness Office will organize special awareness programmes for Dubai Municipality staff including an email contest.

Some 20,000 high-quality T-shirts and more than 10,000 caps, printed with the campaign's logo, will be distributed to the volunteers.

The campaign is supported by Al Naboodah Engineering, Al Habtoor Group, Gulf Eternit Industries, Grand Hyatt, Zenath Recycling, British American Tobacco Association, Tadweer, Tetrapak and Union Paper Mills, among others.