Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Environment-conscious volunteers recently came together to help clean up Nurana Island’s shores as part of Beach Culture’s clean-up plans.
The Beach Clean-up and Bonfire event, which focused on picking plastic, aluminium and glass from the coastline of the relatively remote Nurana Island, was organised to raise awareness about the kingdom’s beaches and the importance of having pristine public seashores.
Mohanna Aldoseri, Beach Culture founder, said: “We organise these from time to time to make as much of a difference, trash wise as we can. It is also to raise awareness amongst Bahraini residents and citizens about preserving the island.”
The beach-loving organisation, as reported in GulfWeekly in 2016, organises courses on kite surfing, stand-up paddling and yoga in addition to beach barbecues at remote areas around the kingdom.
While all its activities are environmentally friendly, focusing on non-motorised sports, Mohanna wants to spread the nature-positive message even further. In addition to cleaning up the beach, the team uses banana leaves for plates during their monthly beach BBQ moonlight events and build as much of their furniture as possible using recycled wood.
Mohanna, who joined the national sailing team when he was 10, has a special bond with water.
He added: “Bahrain’s main source of nature is the water. The more I am learning about the issue, the more alarming it is. Reefs, for example, which are ecosystem hotbeds are quickly eroding. People should learn more about the ways in which our behaviours affect the environment around us, and that’s what we hope to bring to everyone’s attention with these clean-ups.”
Inspired by the other scrap bucklers, this rugged reporter rolled up his sleeves, pulled on a pair of gloves, grabbed a garbage bag and embarked on the hunt for the unholiest of garbage.
The more we traversed the beach, the weirder the discarded “treasures” got. Plastic bottles and discarded cutlery were the usual suspects, but the unusual offenders included diapers, a stack of pricing label strips from Carrefour and an assortment of mismatched footwear.
At one point, the writer in me tried in vain to create a story around each artefact, with limited success, especially once I realised that while strange to me, diapers were fairly typical finds on such hunts. Soon, we each had a diaper score. Mine was unfortunately (or fortunately) a low of two, while some reached as high as seven.
My question to all the new mums and dads guilty of diaper dumping can be surmised in one word: “Why?”
Within a hundred metres or so of walking and plastic hunting, we had gathered almost a dozen bags worth of discarded non-biodegradable ‘goodies’. Also amongst our spoils were a couple of rugs and a fair-sized pile of wood.
This was Maryam Ajoor’s first clean-up in Bahrain, although she has been to a handful in the UK. “I feel like we really made a difference in cleaning up the beach,” said Maryam from Muharraq. “It looks a lot cleaner now.”
While the patch of beach we worked on did look much cleaner, it was a bit disheartening to see how much more there was to do. The only bit to take hope in was that at least there is work enough to organise more of these events. And with that thought, we turned to the second part of the evening – the bonfire.
Our found knickknacks came in handy as we reused the wood to fuel the bonfire and relaxed on the reutilised rugs. It was in the twilight at the beach that a less-seen side of Bahrain’s beauty shone through.
As the conversation turned predictably to why such clean-ups are even needed and how to resolve the issue, every volunteer had their own ideas.
Some believed it was the lack of trash bins and responsible public lands management. Others deemed it to be a cultural mind set of always depending on others to clean up after them that needed to be changed.
Kai Miethig from Cleanup Bahrain disagreed. He said: “I think it’s fairly simple. Whatever people bring to the beach: all the food, the drinks, the diapers… They should take it back with them. It’s even lighter once the food and drink in the containers has been consumed!”
One thing common to the conversation was the feeling that there needs to be more awareness raised, amongst both consumers and businesses, about ways to use less plastic, because being on an island, inevitably sooner or later, it all ends up in the ocean.
Askar, Bahrain’s only legal landfill and dumpsite is almost at capacity and the average Bahraini resident is estimated to generate 1.83kg of garbage per day. Put into perspective, tiny Bahrain, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, generates almost as much solid waste as it produces aluminium.
Even as Bahrain rolls out environmental initiatives like the biodegradable bag programme, more citizens should educate themselves and their peers on small actions that can dramatically reduce plastic use and garbage generation.
Alya Al-Ammari, an environmental chemistry student who is back in the region for the summer, wasn’t afraid to call people out. She said: “Today, I bought a samosa at Carrefour. While most of the grocery stores just put the samosa in a paper bag, despite my protests, the employees there felt compelled to put it on a Styrofoam plate and triple wrap it in cling wrap.”
The fire roared on, consuming the wood as the disposal debate gave way to much more relaxed conversation. As the evening drew to an end, we helped clean-up after the clean-up and I drove down the skinny road that connects Nurana to the rest of the island. I reflected on how, as idyllic islanders, we can make our beach days more sustainable.
TIPS ON how to have a sustainable beach day:
1. Eliminate single use plastic from your picnic baskets … and life.
2. Use real cutlery, instead of plastic. Not only is it better for the environment, it feels more civilised.
3. Take a couple of bags with you to collect your garbage as you use containers up.
4. Don’t leave anything behind, including rugs and diapers. Reuse as much as you can.
5. Keep an extra bag with you, and when you are bored of the water and want a healthy break, just walk along the shore and pick up some of the plastic that has washed up. Every little bit counts. Just make sure not to leave your cache of garbage behind.
