COASTAL CLEANSING EXERCISE (RTYF)

COASTAL CLEANSING EXERCISE (RTYF)

26th September, 2020

INTRODUCTION

The Raise the young foundation, in collaboration with The National environment agency and other stakeholders, Saturday September 19th 2020, embarked on a massive beach cleansing exercise along the Gambian coastline, in commemoration of International Coastal Clean-up Day. The cleansing exercise took place in the coastal settlement of Bakau. The Councillor of Bakau Newtown and Fajara ward (Binta Janneh Jallow) and the National Assembly member of Bakau (Assan Touray), graced the occasion in Bakau.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

« The aim of the clean-up exercise is to increase public awareness and remove debris from the coastline and also collect valuable information about debris and type, and make positive change in people’s attitude towards environmental pollution, especially on our beaches.

« Thousands of tons of waste that is thrown in the oceans, is 60% composed of plastics materials; that every day, more and more plastic accumulates on our beaches; that the careless disposal of these materials comes through sewages outfalls, merchant shipping, commercial fishing operators, and beachgoers, and that their disposal have dire consequences on marine ecosystem.

CONCLUSION

• The exercise will contribute to the people’s health and the environment, particularly our wetland ecosystems which support high biodiversity that we all depend on, for our livelihood.

• Preventing the littering of trash on the coastline, is key to our livelihood and the protection of marine resources.

• We all know that plastics are an important material in our economy, and modern daily life is almost unthinkable without them. At the same time however, they can have serious downsides on the environment and health. It takes hundreds of years to degrade, traps, injures and kills marine animals and disintegrates into micro plastics which are highly toxic and dangerous when they enter our food chain, and dangerous for our health, when eaten.