Divers, Ban Staff Join Massive Global Clean-Up Campaign
By James Kon

Bandar Seri Begawan - Forty one local divers and over 100 Citibank staff joined more than 300,000 volunteers around the globe in a worldwide campaign to remove debris from the underwater environment and to keep the shorelines clean.

The campaign, held at the Muara Beach yesterday, was sponsored by Citibank, in conjunction with the International Clean-Up Day 2006.

According to Citigroup country officer Glen Rase, the bank "provided sponsorship for the international beach and underwater clean-up campaign (last year), and this year, we decided to participate in the activity".

"The cleaning campaign is part of a worldwide effort to safeguard the underwater environment so that sea animals like turtles will not be entangled in fishing nets or mistake plastic bottles for food," he added.

Rase, who is also a diver, said, "We feel that Brunei Darussalam has a beautiful coast as well as unique and beautiful reefs. However, in some shallow reefs, there are signs of damages from bomb fishing."

He also vowed to carry out the event again next year as "we want to give something back to the local community".

Meanwhile, local divers and four officials from the Museums Department visited Pelong Rock, about 20 minutes boat ride from Muara Beach, to clean the coast as well as the seabed surrounding the island.

Officials from the Museums Department urged the public not to capture any wildlife animals or take home flora and fauna from the island as they come under protected species.

The International Clean-Up Day is an annual event under the Project Aware Foundation. Based on the data compiled in previous years, more than 300,000 volunteers removed an average 3.6 million kilogrammes of debris from the sea environment during the September campaign. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with