Coastal pupils clear almost three tonnes of beach rubbish

ABOUT 400 pupils from coastal schools in the Erongo and Karas regions recently participated in the worldwide 24th annual coastal clean-up campaign organised by Ocean Conservancy International.

The pupils collected and cleared Namibian beaches of more than 2 650kg of rubbish.This was the biggest beach clean-up campaign in the world in which more than 400 000 volunteers participated. Namibia’s participation was hosted by coastal business Indongo Toyota (Walvis Bay) and the Namibia Coast Conservation and Management Project (Nacoma).According to Gys Reitz, Nacoma’s spokesperson, the pupils from Henties Bay, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz collected about 2 650kg of litter, which included plastic bags, glass and plastic beverages bottles, fishing nets and fishing lines, beverage cans, cigarette butts and filters, ropes and condoms.The aim of the event was to remove trash and debris from the world’s beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of this debris and to change the behaviour which leads to the dumping of refuse in the world’s oceans which then washes up on shorelines.The coastal clean-up initiative took place on September 18 and 19.