Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 09, 2008
By Dana Khraiche and Rawan Khalid, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: People of all ages and nationalities gathered at the Shuwaikh Beach Park yesterday morning to participate in cleaning up part of the beach and park in coordination with the Japanese Society in Kuwait, an event that's been an annual fixture since 2000.

'Operation Turtles' aims to raise awareness of environmental problems and offer a way of preserving natural resources. "It's called Operation Turtles since it allows the turtles to come back and lay their eggs on a clean beach," explained Sasaki Wataru, a volunteer from the Japanese embassy in Kuwait.

Air pollution here, for example, is getting to be a problem because of the standard of living," Wataru continued, saying that the volunteers are contributing to preserving the Kuwaiti environment by taking small steps such as cleaning the beaches.

Volunteers from many organizations, including the Kuwait Environmental Protection Society (KEPS), the Kuwait Boy Scouts Association and a number of schools, including Salmiyah Girls' School, Baraka Bint Al-No'man School and Arwa Bint Abd Al-Mutaleb School, participated in the clean-up operation.

Masatoshi Muto, the Japanese ambassador to Kuwait, collected four bags of garbage in five minutes, a record he expressed pride in. Muto said that he wants to make this event a regular one so that Kuwaitis can get used to cleaning up their beaches as they're walking along them or simply visiting to relax. He also said that he'd like to see this kind of activity taking place at other locations in the country.

This is a nice gesture from the Japanese ambassador which deserves our thanks and praise, and Kuwait is participating and helping out with the cause," said Salem Al-Rashed, the Ministry of Education's director of activities and president of the Kuwaiti Boy Scouts Association.

Al-Rashed added that he would love to see people beginning to participate in conserving their environment. "I feel upset when I see garbage discarded on our beaches and in our parks because 50% of our food resource is the sea.
The Japanese Society distributed bottles of water and kimonos [traditional Japanese robes] to some of the volunteers.

We do this activity to introduce Japanese culture through environmental issues for the new generation," said Mori Koichi, chairman of the Japanese society in Kuwait.

One volunteer, Manal Al-Failaawi, a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers at Kuwait University, told the Kuwait Times, "I'm surprised by the number of people who turned up, I think it's a very nice thing of them to do.

The event attracted more than 150 people, both first-timers and regulars, who chatted and took breaks in between cleaning up their sections of beach.
This is our first year participating in cleaning up the beach," said volunteer Noura Khaled, a pupil at Baraka Bint Al No'man School. "People are very negligent towards the environment, they should be more careful.