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A potential fraud scandal has been averted after a good-natured Bahrain resident stumbled across hundreds of personal documents on a local beach before gathering them up.
Michelle Page, who lives in Diraz, was taking her dogs Daisy and Rufus for a morning walk at 5.30am along Karranah beach when she noticed piles of white paper and brown envelopes scattered across the sand.
She said: “I was walking along, once again despairing at how much litter had been left on the beach.
“It’s usually full of nappies, cans, bones and other flotsam and jetsam that people leave or throw in the sea. Towards the end of the beach I noticed all this paper.
“There was so much of it, and I thought it was a bit strange. On closer inspection, I saw a full A4 photocopy of someone’s CPR, both front and back.
“My immediate reaction was one of shock, but then I thought: ‘how would I feel if that was my CPR lying around here for anyone to find?’ So I took the time to gather all the paperwork up.”
Closer inspection of the documents reveals a frightening lack of data protection. Amongst the pile of papers are numerous CPR photocopies, vehicle ownership cards, insurance documents, bank details, traffic violation notices, ownership transfer forms and service receipts.
Items were dated as recently as mid-July.
Identity theft is a huge problem globally and Michelle added: “If someone dishonest or fraudulent had come across this, I imagine they could easily tally the information together and do something untoward. I was amazed at some of the content of the material just casually left there.
“Surely this action violates our rights to privacy and identity protection? Hopefully, the root of this case is discovered to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, she used this incident to further call for more to be done to protect beaches and public spaces from littering.
Michelle, who is one of the chief fundraisers for the Bahrain Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA), said: “The one attitude I just cannot fathom is littering. It truly is the crime of the ignorant; why drop something on the floor when there are so many bins around? People are just used to others picking it up, or see so much of it around that they think their waste won’t make a difference.
“Karranah beach is particularly bad. It’s a popular area for people to go and have barbecues and other gatherings, but when I come past with my dogs in the morning they’ve just gathered their rubbish in a pile and left it.
“The worst thing is when the tide comes in and washes it away into the sea. This could severely damage marine life, as evidenced by the dead dolphins, squid and turtles that I’ve found amongst empty petrol cans on the beach. Something must be done.”
A battle to clean the beaches of Bahrain has taken numerous twists and turns over the years leaving environmentalists wringing their hands in frustration.
Even after community clean-ups leaving popular beaches spotless, rubbish starts piling up again. A green crusaders’ group, Bahrain Beachcombers, voiced its concerns two years ago when dirty nappies were left on the ground and not disposed of correctly. Images of the piles of abandoned rubbish were emailed to the local ministry.
Many local companies and schools regularly carry out beach clean-ups too as part of their corporate and community responsibility initiatives.
One team of 38 volunteers collected more than 50kg of plastic and other hard waste material during an exercise in an effort organised by the Aquatic World Awareness Responsibility & Education (AWARE) programme, as part of a global bid to help protect underwater environments and spread awareness of a cleaner natural habitat.
There also have been several incidents of industrial waste being dumped in the sea.
GulfWeekly has contacted companies concerned so they can investigate and will ensure the material is dealt with appropriately.
