With everything that's going on in the world, what we need less of is litter. Not traditional litter, like paper cups or tissues, but the litter found in our deserts, like metal pipes and car parts. (Yes, really.)
To fix this problem, Clean UAE has sprung up, Since 2002, they've been tirelessly at work cleaning up UAE's deserts. This year, with the help of 4x4 Nations, an offroading group, I was able to attend one in person.
All volunteers get:
+ food from Luisine and drinks from Almarai
More than 6,300 volunteers from schools and organizations all over the country (such as GEMS Modern Academy) showed up en masse to clean up what amounted to 11,300 kg of waste removed from the deserts.
What we were able to find includes (but is not limited to):
- Car parts (https://image.khaleejtimes.com/?uuid=8a37489f-9c89-5023-a017-cd005648b2ab&function=cropresize&type=preview&source=false&q=75&crop_w=0.99999&crop_h=0.75&x=0&y=0&width=1500&height=844, floor mats and pieces of headlights)
- Metal bits (one guy walked away with a pipe ~2m long)
- Tons of plastic (found near roads and highways)
The event was split up into 4 sites, with site A (where I was stationed) being designated for large parties and the other sites for individuals. The opening ceremony started with the Aga Khan Scouts and Guides Group performing with recorders and drums. The disclipline and energy they carried reverberated throughout the site. Then came the speeches.
The Speeches
Habiba Al Mar’ashi, co-founder of the Emirates Environmental Group, took a look back on the start of the program and it's evolution into being the nationwide event that it is today.
We initially rolled out this campaign in 2002 with the aim of inculcating sustainable practices amongst the different sectors of the society in the UAE. It has been rebranded to ‘Clean UAE’ and the journey is on-going since the last 20 years with a consistent message: ‘Environmental protection is everyone’s responsibility’.
H. E. Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, also made an appearance at the event. She revealed that the Clean UAE program had made its way to the Cabinet and been approved, as well as its importance to COP28 and the UAE's status as a host country.
The Event
I have some advice for you if you plan to go to this event: bring somebody with you. You might think the task would be easy, but some items tend to be very hard to pull out without assistance. Also, by bringing more people in, you're making the event more widespread and ensuring that the desert has more eyes on it, helping remove even more debris. Plus, events like these can be boring. With someone by your side, the boring atmosphere turns into a fun-filled morning with plenty opportunity to chat. The chilling temperatures the desert can reach also mean that, if nothing else, you have someone else to warm you up.
I was expecting boredom and there was some (that's an unavoidable problem with these types of events) but more often than not, I was dumbstruck by what I found. You often think of 'litter' as ordinary garbage you'd find on the streets, but one look at the desert patch we had to go through showed me that people could really throw away anything, even things that didn't seem like trash, such as a mint condition (with washing) car floor mat. The sad thing was that a lot of things could be recycled, but were just sitting on the roadside. To combat this, the event organizers emphasized that all garbage collected in the desert would find its way to recycling plants and be reused (if possible). That's a noble effort and in context of the recent COP28 event, really pushes the UAE's viability as a host country forward.
The Conclusion
Once again, I'm thankful to 4x4 Nations for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this great event and to contribute for a great cause. Clean UAE was a fun-filled 2022 event I'll have fond memories of, because I experienced it with a friend.
Photos 1,2 Credits: @eegemirates on Instagram
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