By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: The Japanese Society in Kuwait held the 22nd edition of its beach cleanup campaign on Saturday at Shuwaikh Beach to enhance awareness among people on restoring sea turtles at Kuwaiti beaches. The campaign titled “Operation Turtle” was attended by Japanese Ambassador to Kuwait Morino Yasunari, Deputy Director General for Technical Affairs at the Environment Public Authority Abdullah Al-Zaidan, Board Member of Kuwait Environment Protection Society (KEPS) Jenan Bahzad, Deputy Chairman of Kuwait Boy Scouts Association Hussein Al-Maqseed and Secretary General Ibrahim Al-Eid, Public Relations Officer at Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) Hanan Al-Ibraheem, private companies and large number of students from Kuwaiti public schools.

“It is great pleasure for me to kick off this year's ‘Operation Turtle’ beach cleaning campaign organized by the Japanese Society. Thank you very much for making time to participate in this volunteering event with the goodwill to clean the beach, so that we can see turtles come back to this beach,” Yasunari said. “Environment matters for the future of mankind. We are witnessing similar volunteering events, from beach cleanups to planting and growing plants in the desert in this country. There is more awareness about efficient use of energy and water and recycling of waste. Taking care of our Earth will bring about a better quality of life for the future,” he said.

Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach
Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach
Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach

“This event was initiated by the Japanese Society in 2000, and as such, symbolizes the longtime friendship between Japan and Kuwait. Japanese and Kuwaiti people, and maybe people from other nationalities, the young and the elderly, work together shoulder to shoulder for environment protection,” Yasunari added.

Zaidan explained that the aim of the initiative is to clean Shuwaikh Beach to raise awareness that “environmental cleanliness is related to public health”. He added that three of the sustainable development goals are achieved in such initiatives, which is preserving the marine and terrestrial environment, limiting climate change, and following the Kuwaiti Environmental Protection Law, noting that the participation of youth and children in such initiatives aims to inculcate awareness in them, taking into account all security and safety measures of the participants.

Abdullah Al-Zaidan
Abdullah Al-Zaidan
Jenan Bahzad
Jenan Bahzad
Morino Yasunari
Morino Yasunari

Bahzad told Kuwait Times that the symbolism of cleaning the beach to save turtles has become an annual message, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that natural habitats are kept fit for living organisms away from human pollution from various sources. "Plastic bags and cigarette butts are small waste that are widely spread on the beaches and disappear in the folds of fine sand," she said. "According to some estimates, with the rate of dumping waste into the oceans, such as plastic cans, plastic bags and single-use plastic cups, by 2050 the oceans will carry more plastic waste than fish, and around 99 percent of seabirds will have swallowed plastic waste," she added.

Takahiro Yamamoto, a volunteer, told Kuwait Times about his participation. “It’s a very good idea for awareness of environmental protection. It’s good for kids to learn something about the environment at schools, but they also need to go to the field and experience it,” he said.

Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach
Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach
Volunteers clean Shuwaikh Beach

Another participant, Sridevi Mohan, said: “This is a part of Japanese culture — they teach their kids to preserve cleanness in their environment, and they want to spread this in Kuwait as well through beach cleanup campaigns that we are participating in for 22 years. It’s important for the kids to learn about the importance of cleanliness and keeping their surroundings clean, so it provides a better habitat for turtles on our beaches, as well as providing a better environment for marine life.”

Samia Abdulaziz said that this is her first experience in beach cleaning, pointing out that it’s useful for children to learn more about the environment, especially when they see a lot of people leaving garbage and not cleaning up. “This doesn’t give them a good example to raise their awareness about the environment,” she said. Ahmad Abdulnabi, a middle school teacher at Al-Mulla Abdulaziz Naser Al-Anjari school for boys, said: “Our students participated to be a part of cleaning our environment, especially since it is an international issue that the whole world is interested in it.”