THERE is need for a change in attitude, if we ever going to tackle the issue of plastic waste, revealed the staff of the Ministry of Fisheries at the recently led a clean-up campaign on in Honiara.
Hundreds of Honiara residents turned out at the three designated venues namely Kukum, Rove and White River to be part of the clean-up campaign.
The clean-up campaign wrapped up a string of activities organised to mark the three events, World Environment Day, the World Oceans Day and Coral Triangle Day.
Apparently, the annual one-day clean-up activity is meant to clean up the heavily littered Honiara streams and shoreline while at the same time spread the message why it is important to have a clean environment.
But despite the good intentions for a clean environment, the biggest hindrance is the attitude of people who seemed not to appreciate the effort put in by few people who struggled to ensure rubbish are collected now and again and dispose-off at a proper dumping place.
The Ministry of Fisheries took the lead during Saturday’s clean-up effort with support from the two partner ministries – the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health.
Other groups that turned up included the Honiara City Council, Friends of City, Don Boscoe students, Rewa Youths from Lengakiki, Kukum Youths, White River Youths and J-PRISM ll.
The slogan used for this campaign was “Wanem hem happen lo land hemi save spolem sea blo iumi” and the Ministry of Fisheries had emphasized this important connection between land and sea during the awareness talk.
At Kukum site, the coordinator of J-PRISM ll project also conducted awareness talk about his project to strengthen institutional capacity for solid waste management (J-PRISM ll contributed 100 each of groves, garbage bags and face masks for this clean-up campaign).
The Ministry fisheries thanked all who involved in the clean-up activity for availing themselves with special reference to women and girls who came out in numbers for the event.
“It is good to see them come out in numbers for the clean-up because the theme for the World Oceans Day 2019 was “Gender and Oceans”.
Source: Ministry of Environment