Blog Action Day; In The Arab World…
In our part of the world environment has definitely witnessed a lot of changes, negative ones, due to global warming, WAR, and the annoying ignorance of many Arabs.
One can still see people throwing garbage out their car windows; a study showed that Arabs alone throw away around 25 billion plastic bags on daily basis! one can also easily spot water leaking from street pipes, or water flowing out water hoses. Little is actually being done to reduce pollution levels, let alone stop it. Not to mention the sad fact that relatively few Arab countries provide recycling services, and in those few countries only few people do actually use those services, and among those only few do it correctly.
But it has to be said though, that the attention recycling is getting has been growing over the years. Taking the country I live in currently, Tunisia, as an example, 3 years ago, I looked really stupid when I used to separate my plastic waste from the rest of my garbage, since there were no recycling services provided to the public. Now the project that started 2 years ago as a contest to spread awareness has turned out to be a big success and there are plastic-waste containers almost everywhere now for the public to comfortably fill with plastic waste.
That’s besides the brochures that are being given away for free from many shopping centers and stores to spread awareness and give tips to citizens on how to reduce waste, save energy and recycle.
It’s also to be noted that children are being targeted as well. There’s a Tunisian Children magazine called: “Farasha” that has a special section about environment, where children can enjoy stories that spread awareness and give them tips on how to save environment and help protect it.
And speaking of children and environment, here are some really cute children drawings about environment.
As for other Arab countries, many is being done to spread environmental awareness, and I’m sure you can find info on other blogs of any country you choose. It’s to be noted though, that the Arab Environment Day took place yesterday, its theme was: “Secure Management of Chemicals”.
On a different note, UAE has launched its Annual Environment Photography Competition.
And another competition for Environment Management has been launched in Saudi Arabia.
I hope that Arab governments will pay more attention to the environment and provide more services that will help the public learn more about the threats they cause to the environment by their ignorance and help them also be part of solving the many environmental problems we’re facing.
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