First Lady Fazna Ahmed has urged the public to make a lifestyle shift from a “throwaway culture” to an ecologically mindful path.
She was speaking at the opening of the beach cleaning event in Hulhumalé held as part of the ‘Prevention of Marine Litter in the Lakshadweep Sea’ project this morning.
She said that cleaning events such as today’s exercise play a distinctive role in combatting ocean plastic pollution, she said, which opens opportunities for volunteers to see the impact and level of plastic pollution firsthand.
The First Lady stated some lifestyle changes everyone should adopt today; use reusable containers instead of plastic bottles, carriers, and other single-use options.
Urging everyone who cares for the environment to support and participate in cleaning events such as today’s event, which the First Lady said promotes the greater good of the community, she asked everyone to do their part; pick up trash whenever they can—even if they don’t litter—and advocate against littering and other such harmful action.
Acknowledging the numerous challenges to proper waste disposal and management, she noted that the Maldives’ plan to phase-out single-use plastics by 2023 resulted from extensive deliberations and collaboration of all stakeholders.
The ‘Prevention of Marine Litter in the Lakshadweep Sea’ project seeks to promote source-to-sea solutions to reduce marine littering in tourism clusters along the Lakshadweep shorelines of the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and India. The project will be officially launched on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.
