It has always been said
that the ocean is the symbol of wealth, mystery and knowledge. Still
there are so many things about the ocean that are unknown – hidden
inside its own world. Somehow the ocean has always been related to the
beginning of the existence of life. The great books have related to the
ocean– the Bible and the Quran have spoken about it. According to the
Bible, after creating day and night, God said let the water under the
sky be gathered to one place and the gathered waters was called ‘ocean’,
then He teemed
the water with living creatures. In the Quran it says – then He created
water and filled them with living creatures and then He divided that
water into river and ocean. The evolutionists also support that the
ocean is the beginning of all moving life form. The first life
sustaining place was nowhere but the ocean itself.
The World Ocean Day was
officially declared by the United Nations as June 8th and is being
celebrated for the first time this year, though the concept was proposed
in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The
Environment Club of Independent University in partnership with Cleanup
Bangladesh, the organiser of World Ocean Day Beach Cleanup in Bangladesh
went to Cox’s Bazaar for this event. As our country holds the longest
beach in the world, it becomes our responsibility to think about our
beach and act according to its needs. Our discipline, Environmental
Science and Management suggests that these kinds of needs are best met
by a participatory approach. Though participatory approach is more
effective than any other environmental management options, the thorough
implementation of a complete participatory approach is very difficult to
put into practice. It becomes even tougher for countries like ours
where the literacy rate is very low and the poverty is high. It is
indeed an undeniable fact that someone who has a problem with managing
their food will not be interested in any kind of approach that takes
them away from income generating activities. We tried our best to
implement a participatory approach in this beach cleanup. 
The
first part of this beach clean up was to include the young generation,
so that the awareness or consciousness can be created in the class of
people who are actually the future. Striking the iron when it is red is a
must because then the iron can be given a particular shape. As they are
young, it was easier to make them understand why we need to keep our
beach clean and how we can keep it cleaner. If we have been able to give
them the message easily and clearly, then it will have its effect in
the future. There were two hundred school kids who voluntarily helped us
with the clean up. Safety measures like gloves and face masks were
provided by SAFE – safety assistance for emergencies. The kids were very
enthusiastic, helpful and most importantly all of them were very smart
and followed the instructions very well. Everyone was unbelievably swift
with their work and also took little more than half an hour to clean up
the Laboni Point beach. The Laboni Point beach is that part of Cox’s
Bazaar beach where most of the tourists and locals visit. As a result,
most of the littering is being done there. The kids gathered around
40-45 kilograms of waste in that short period of time. They were
provided with refreshment after their work was done.
The second portion of the ocean
day beach cleanup was to record the data of the different types of
wastes on the beach. The recording of waste was necessary to have an
idea on amount of the types of wastes. To record the data, the
supervisors of the cleanup gathered the total wastes and then
characterised them and put them in different bags.
After sorting out
the wastes in different bags we found fourteen items. They are – paper
bags, plastic bags, caps and lids, clothing and shoes, cups, plate,
forks, knives, spoons, food wrappers, containers, strapping bands,
straws stirrers, bait container, bleach bottles and cleaner bottles,
beverage bottle, beverage can and glass bottle, packaging, plastic
sheeting, tarps, rope, cigarette, cigarette filter, cigar tips, tobacco
packaging and tobacco wrappers and coconut shells. The data record that
we got also helped us to have a comparison to previous beach clean ups.
For example, the amount of plastic has reduced very insignificantly but
other items like cigarettes and cigarette wrappers have reduced. Though
the coconut shell amount has remained the same but the amount of
cigarette filter has increased. This recording successfully gave us the
comparison to last year and understanding of the fact that the entire
beach cleanup round the year by different organisations did not go
unnoticed. A number of hazardous types were not found in the beach
during clean up like condoms, nylon rope and plastic sticker. These
absences of these products indicate the growing awareness among the
visitors of the beach in Cox’s Bazaar. There were other partners with us
in this effort – Beautiful Bangladesh, Volunteer Aid, UNYSA Bangladesh,
SAFE, BYB, BTEF, Earth Club, IBAIS University tourism club.
The beach cleanup programme
awarded the school kids and the supervisors with certificates in
recognition of their contribution to beach cleanup by the Director of
Project Aware Foundation, Jenny Miller Garmendia. The beach cleanup
programme had practiced participatory method in a way where the
awareness will help in future.
(School of Environmental Science and Management,
Independent University, Bangladesh)
Copyright
(R) thedailystar.net 2009
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