Launch of Clean Up the World campaign 2016 |17 September 2016
‘Netway nou Sesel!’
The Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Didier Dogley has called on all Seychellois to come together to clean up Seychelles.
He also urged all to practice the ‘savoir vivre’ inherited from our parents.
The minister made this call yesterday while launching this year’s Clean Up the World Campaign at the Peace Park in Victoria.
The campaign, which started yesterday and ends tomorrow, is this year being celebrated under the theme ‘Netway Nou Sesel’ (Clean Up our Seychelles).
“Keeping a place clean is not something extraordinary. It is all to do with ‘savoir vivre’. Because at home where we it all begins, the first thing our parents teach and tell us is to always keep the house clean, keep outside the house clean.
It’s not something that a minister or a president needs to tell you.
“It is something that begins at home, in schools, and we grow up with. Unfortunately for some, as they grow up, they go against those good advice and always choose to do the bad things,” he lamented.
The minister said because of these bad practices by some, we see a lot of ‘hot spots’ in our beautiful country full of rubbish. Even contractors who are being paid by individuals and companies to throw away rubbish, just dump them in the environment instead of the landfill just to cut on costs.
Also present at the opening were his two principal secretaries – Alain Decommarmond for environment, Wills Agricole for energy and climate change, the chief executive of the Land Waste Management Agency (LMWA) Lena Desaubin, officials and staff of both institutions and schoolchildren from the Anse Etoile and Ile Perseverance primary schools.
During the launch, the minister also announced that very soon his ministry will table a bill to the National Assembly to ban plastic bags here in Seychelles and also the enforcement of the new Environment Protection Act, to deal with those who persist in polluting the environment.
Under the theme ‘Netway Nou Sesel’, the minister urged all Seychellois to come together to clean Seychelles especially during the campaign.
He then went through the history of the Clean Up the World campaign here in Seychelles which, he said, started 39 years ago and now going to 40 next year. And that every year people from across the country, ministries, civil society have been mobilised to make the campaign a success, noting that participation has increased across the years.
“A message that has resonated across the world says let us all keep our environment clean. 40 years is not one day. 40 years is a lot of years we are constantly repeating the same message across the world at this time of year,” said the minister.
Referring to the dengue fever that affected the island recently, Minister Dogley said it was due to the population not keeping their environment clean.
“What happens sometimes is we forget that when we affect the environment, it affects us also,” said the minister.
Also during the launch ceremony Trois Frères Distillery – Takamaka Bay handed over two bins to the department of environment. The bins are part of a total of 16 bins being offered to that department by the company. It was the managing director of Takamaka Bay, Richard D’Offay, who made the donation. Mr D’Offay has expressed the wish of his company’s continued contribution towards such a noble cause with more bins next year.
The day was animated by poems and songs from the two primary schools – Anse Etoile with their poem ‘Sesel Nou Pei Sa’ and Perseverance with a theme song on the need to keep our environment clean.
