Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism is encouraging all Namibians to participate in the nation-wide waste collection challenge on Saturday, 17 September, as Namibia joins the rest of the international community in commemorating World Clean-up Day.
Namibia has been participating in the global commemoration of World Clean-up Day since 2018 by hosting National Clean-up days, as initiated by President Hage Geingob. This year’s main commemorative event will take place in Grootfontein and will be officiated by the environment minister, Pohamba Shifeta.
According to the ministry’s spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda, the event is intended to create awareness and to encourage Namibians to adopt attitudes that will ensure Namibia’s environment is free of waste and litter.
“We believe that the power to keep our environments clean is within all of us as global citizens. Let’s demonstrate it by cooperating and collaborating in cleaning after our environments,” Muyunda said.
While the main event will take place in Grootfontein, Muyunda said that the ministry is urging regional councils, local authorities and traditional authorities in all 14 regions to mobilise their residents to participate in the nation-wide clean-up challenge. The ministry also invites organisations, institutions and other societal clusters to participate in the challenge by coordinating clean-up activities for their employees, Muyunda said.
“The ministry hopes that this will be the biggest waste collection day in Namibian history by ensuring a huge participation and collect as many bags of waste as possible,” he added.
To ensure the success of the event, Muyunda said, the ministry will supply limited amounts of refuse bags through regional councils. However, he added, regions are encouraged to mobilise their own resources if possible.
Muyunda said that participants can also voluntarily participate in the trash hashtag challenge by sharing photos they took before, during and after the cleaning challenge. These images can be posted on social media with the hashtag #trashtagchallenge or #keepnamibiaclean.
File photo for illustrative purposes only.
