Short summary:In connection with “International Coastal Cleanup Day”, the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan has been part of the Caspian Sea’s Novkhani coast with the support of the Ecological and Natural Resources Ministry, EkoSfera Social-Ecological Center. This story was developed as a part of an OPEN Media Hub production worlkshop for young journalists.
Author: Erkin Abdullayev
Media: Youth Portal
Date of publication: 16.09.18
Link to original publication (in Russian)
Story translation:
The action of cleaning Novkhani beach area near Baku took place on Sunday on the World Cleanup Day, annually celebrated on September 15. This day is the largest global one-day volunteer campaign to clean up beaches from debris and wastes in inland waters and oceans. The organizers of the campaign of cleaning the beach in Novkhani were the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan.On Sunday, dozens of volunteers cleaned the beach of plastic, tin and glass bottles, bags, and other household wastes that has accumulated there after the beach season. Employees of the European Union’s Baku mission participated directly in the action.
The head of the Baku office, Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas, told youthportal.az that on World Cleanup Day, all EU delegations join such campaigns.
Our delegations all over the world, on this day, participate in this initiative not only in Baku, but throughout the world. We are happy that today the EU and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, and many young people have united together to clean this beach”, he said.
Head of Baku Office, Ambassador Kestutis Jaunkauskas
Kestutis Jankauskas noted that volunteers want to tidy the beach up, the way they want to see it. “I believe that such events will be ordinary events, and not once a year, and more often, and we will join forces to clean up the beaches,” he said.
He noted the importance of the use of trash cans.
Along with local volunteers, among the action participants there were foreigners who came to Azerbaijan to travel.
Paolo Fernandez told youthportal.az that he came to Baku from England.
I live and work in England. I came to Azerbaijan to meet my friends, to travel. They told me that there would be a cleaning of the beaches, and that we could help. I agreed with pleasure. Baku is a very beautiful city and the beaches are also beautiful, but in some places are dirty”, he said.
Paolo Fernandez
Paolo noted that he would like to advise everyone who goes to the beach to bring bags of garbage. “So it will be clean, and the beaches will be more beautiful,” he said.
Head of the Department of Politics, Economics and Information of the EU Delegation in Baku Denis Daniilidis highlighted the importance of environmental protection for future generations. He said that on the day of cleaning the beaches, the EU has many events, not only in the EU countries, but also in other countries.
We agreed with the Ministry of Ecology and came here together with the embassies of EU countries, students from the French Azerbaijan University, and young European ambassadors in Azerbaijan.
We did a very good job cleaning the beach from debris and plastic as a sign of respect for the beaches, ” – he said.
Head of the Department of Politics, Economics and Information of the Baku Office of the EU Denis Daniilidis
According to him, the problem of contamination with plastic is a very serious issue, and the EU has a policy to combat plastic wastes. Daniilidis noted that the problem of sea pollution is also another very big issue.
Fish die from plastics. This is a big tragedy. Therefore, we must get rid of plastic. And this symbolic action is to show people that they need to clean the environment, ” – he said.
