By Amin Kef (Ranger)
People from various walks of life converged on the Aberdeen to Lumley beach on Saturday 1st October 2022, to voluntarily take part in the EU beach clean-up event which is one of EU’s Sierra Leone annual activities which had been going on for years.
The clean-up event, which was organized by the EU Delegation in partnership with Shout Climate Change Africa (SCCA), the Sierra Leone Government, Freetown City Council (FCC); and National Tourist Board (NTB), attracted hundreds of participants/ dignitaries ranging from Government officials, diplomats to representatives from various communities, corporate persons, students, waste management teams and a host of other beach lovers/participants.
The EU Team and partners chose the beach location so Freetown residents could have and feel the positive impact on the state of cleaning the ocean in municipality areas like the Lumley -Aberdeen beach: a place that draws a handsome number of visitors daily.
The event was kickstarted by a brief remark from the Head of EU Delegation, Ambassador Manuel Muller, who welcomed the participants. In his words; the Ambassador appreciated the EU collaboration with FCC, NTB and SCCA. He also commented on the importance of beach cleaning, raising awareness about the need to protect the environment and keep the ocean clean for aquatic and public health safety.
Brief statements were also made by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Freetown City Council Deputy Administrator, and the Deputy General Manager of National Tourist Board.
The event was a huge success and the participants removed over 2,500 trash bags of rubbish from the beachside.
Volunteers collected an array of waste materials, but the main types were sewage, glass bottles, single-use plastic bottles, cans, unidentified plastic pieces, pieces of clothing, shoes and fishing debris such as fishing threads, gauge, and ropes. This was another real eye opener for the Freetown city residents/volunteers as it highlighted the amount of rubbish that actually makes its way to the oceans – waste that could be avoided if people chose more sustainable alternatives, recycled the items where possible or disposed off their waste correctly.
One of the major EU partner in the event Shout Climate Change Africa CEO, Finnex John Asibor, has this to say: “We are very happy being an implementing partner with EU on beach clean-up for good five years consecutively, Which beach cleaning is part of SCCA’s mandate we see it as part of our responsibility, we look forward to planning more events like this in the future to help combat the amount of waste in our communities and our oceans”.
At the end of the cleaning process, the cleaning tools were donated by EU Delegation to the National Tourist Board presented by EU Ambassador Manuel Muller and received by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Andrew L. Sorie.
The event ended up to be a huge success as thorough cleaning was done within the demarcated beach locations.
