Monrovia– Over five hundred volunteers at the weekend excitedly participated in a beach clean-up and awareness raising event as part of the European Union’s global efforts to promote a clean and safe environment, an EU press release says in Monrovia on Saturday.
The project especially addresses the ocean and issues of pollution, marine litter and waste management,
The volunteers covered a distance of over 1.3 kilometres on the beach behind the German and Nigerian Embassies in Congo Town Monrovia and collected a total of 300Kg of various forms of trash such as hard and soft plastic materials, landfills, medical wastes.
Working in collaboration with the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) and Accountability Lab, the volunteers were mobilized from communities along the beach, Community-based Enterprises (CBEs), and included members of the Diplomatic Corp, staff of the United Nations in Liberia and other organizations.
During the clean-up event, the Head of the Political, Press and Information Section at the European Union Delegation to Liberia Mr. Juan Antonio emphasized that the task of ensuring better, cleaner and healthier future is the responsibility of everyone and expressed the hope that the event will help in keeping the beach clean and promoting new ways of reusing and recycling plastic waste.
”We cannot reach the goals without you. The communities and each and every citizen of Liberia are crucial for supporting proper waste disposal in Liberia,” Juan Antonio said.
The EU Head of Delegation recognized the support of other EU member countries including France, Germany, Finland, the Kingdom of Sweden and the United Kingdom and all community-based enterprises.
”We thank the Community-based enterprises (CBEs) for their support today. Their contribution has been crucial to ensure the waste is not all going to the landfill but can be reprocessed and we hope that you all, as consumers, will support the market by buying recycled products and less plastic.”
Also speaking, the Manager of the Solid Waste Department at the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) Hafiz A.V. Sarnor highlighted the risks associated with improper disposal of waste and urged communities along the beach in Monrovia to work alongside various CBEs and municipal authorities to put in place systems that will help address the issue of waste management to protect the environment.
Philip Biah, Director of the Environment Division at the PCC also stressed the need for more community involvement and ownership of efforts to keep their environment clean and safe.
At the close of the beach clean-up, the EU Delegation in Liberia handed over the tools and equipment used for the clean-up to communities that participated to help empower them to continue cleaning and maintaining the beach.
The weekend’s beach clean-up event follows on commitments from the Our Ocean Conference (OCC) in Malta 2017 where the EU reaffirmed its leading role on ocean governance and pledged to act, and help build momentum behind the global call for cleaner and safer seas.
The EU and its Member States with a diplomatic mission in Liberia are actively supporting Liberia’s efforts to address key environmental challenges, including degradation of natural resources (forestry, land and water) and loss of biodiversity (forests, ecosystems, marine, wetlands and mangroves).