Students engage in beach cleanup exercise

University students, pertaining to both public and private sector universities got themselves engaged in a beach cleanup exercise to commemorate mark World Cleanup Day 2018 here at one of the most frequented Seaview in Clifton. During the exercise, with the theme Coastal Cleanup, the students were also joined in by citizens in general visiting the beach with little idea that any campaign may have been initiated to clean the beach, catering to their much needed recreational activities.
Shabina Faraz, facilitating the exercise told APP Sunday that the Pakistan with a more than 1000 Kilo meter long coast line was in dire need of regular and efficient cleanup exercise to protect its sea from being literally turned into a huge waste body. Mentioning that the event was organized by Green Media Initiative with the support of Hashoo Foundation, the activist said joint efforts that too at every level, are urgently needed to contain the situation.
"We need to realize the intensity of situation and put our foot down so as to also protect our rich marine resources," she said. Shabina Faraz, also the Green Media Initiative Coordinator expressed her gratitude to the teachers and students belonging to Karachi University, Institute of Business Administration and Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science (FUUAST) and like minded NGOs for joining the effort.
"It was heartening to realize as how these young students managed to collect plastic bags, bottles and other non-biodegradable waste from the site visited round the clock by masses," she said. It was mentioned that these students were also extremely successful is raising certain awareness among the people with regard to threat the sea is exposed to just because of lack of sensitivity towards the issue of marine pollution.
Known environmentalist, Dr Rafi ul Haq along with senior teachers and researchers including Dr Seema Naz from FUUAST were confident that the initiative would be sustained on sound grounds and would be gradually expanded to entire coast line of the country, spread upto Balochistan. Need for sustainable solution to contain solid waste disposal, in particular context of plastic waste was unanimously registered by the participants of the exercise.
Experts mentioned that the International Coastal Cleanup Day was initiated by Ocean Conservancy in 1986 to engage volunteers in the exercise aimed at collecting debris from waterways. During the cleanup, volunteers act as "citizen scientists," tallying the items they find on data cards and consequently their information is utilized to identify the sources of marine debris, examine trends in debris items, and increase awareness about the threats of marine debris.