‘Clean Up the World’ campaign officially launched |16 September 2017

‘Clean Up the World’ is a community based environmental campaign that inspires and empowers communities from every corner of the globe to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment.

Seychelles has been taking part in this campaign for the past 19 years.

The campaign, held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), mobilises an estimated 35 million volunteers from 130 countries annually, making it one of the largest environmental based campaigns in the world.

In Seychelles the government spends around R170 million to pay 300 contractors to keep Seychelles clean.

As per yearly tradition, the Landscape and Waste Management Agency (LWMA) launched the ‘Clean Up the World’ campaign yesterday morning at Ile Perseverance 2 Garden.

Present at the launch were the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Didier Dogley, the principal secretary for environment Alain Decommarmond, LWMA chief executive Michel Vielle, among other guests.

The campaign brings together businesses, community groups, schools, governments and individuals in a range of activities and programmes that positively improve local environments.

Minister Dogley stated that since the first campaign, much effort has been put in to keep Seychelles’ environment clean.

“Clean Up the World encourages participants to organise many activities around the island to make Seychelles clean. Having a cleaner and brighter country will allow us to live healthier in a decent environment. The government is trying really hard to protect our most important resources, and that’s our environment. We have made a lot of effort in this area such as by banning all plastic materials, and replacing them with biodegradable materials. We are also planning to recycle glass bottles in the future,” he said.

During the ceremony three organizations, namely Eden Island (IS), Lions Club of Seychelles (LCS) and Rotary Club of Victoria (RCV), made donations towards the campaign.

The director of sales and marketing of EI, Peter Smith, donated a consignment of 10,000 litter bags while

the president of LCS, Dr Sasikumar, donated a consignment of cleaning tools and equipment. For his part, the president of RCV, Charlie Ng, donated a consignment of t-shirts and cleaning gloves.

After the official launch a group of volunteers started to clean around Ile Persevrance.

Today various groups at district level will mobilise to clean their districts.

There will also be a major collection of excessive waste from bin sites.

The accompanying photographs show highlights of the launch ceremony yesterday.