By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Celebrating National and Liberation Days is a joy for kids and adults in Kuwait. People are used to going on parades on the Gulf Road and at the Khairan and chalet areas. Since the 1980s, children were used to spraying white foam on each other, and few celebrated by spraying water.

A few years ago, the government banned using foam spray during the celebrations, so celebrators added another item to their celebration gear: water balloons. Added to a rise in using water guns in recent years, this kind of celebration caused huge consumption of water, which lead the government to advise people to abstain from celebrating in this way.

While the Ministry of Interior announced banning spraying water from water guns and throwing balloons during the national celebrations, police were seen allowing children to play with water guns and throw balloons at gatherings and parades on the Gulf Road. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electricity and Water announced launching an awareness campaign against wasting water during national celebrations. Yet, it seems that people did not take the campaign seriously, as the celebrators used thousands of balloons filled with water during the holiday.

For the past two years, there were no celebrations due to the pandemic and banning of gathering. So, kids were very excited to join the celebrations this year. They expressed their excitement by throwing hundreds of water balloons on people and vehicles at the parade. While the throwing of balloons was expected by those who drove or walked on the Gulf Road, this practice was not expected in other areas where the damp celebrations spilled over.

Several people complained of being attacked by children in different neighborhoods far from the seaside and the Gulf Road. These incidents are even more dangerous since people in these places are not expecting such attack. A man in Hawally was seriously injured after being attacked by a balloon thrown directly to his eye. Another lady also complained of being a victim of a water balloon attack in Salmiya.

Head of the Al-Bahar Eye Center, Dr Abdullah Al-Baghli, said that throwing balloons filled with water on the face and eyes may cause serious injuries. “Such negative behavior should stop as it’s harmful for the health and waste of water,” he said in statements published by Al-Qabas daily.

“The emergency department at the Center received 92 cases of injuries in two days only (25th and 26th of February). These cases include 75 corneal abrasions or cuts, six hits near the eye, one cut wound to the eyelid, a blow around the eye that led to an orbital bone fracture, internal bleeding in the eye, a case of bleeding and external wound in the eye, and six other cases of injuries caused by throwing balloons,” added Baghli, saying the number of injuries in general this year was lower than the previous years before the pandemic.