By SIMON NDIVE KALLA
As Cameroon prepares to join the world to celebrate International Coastal Clean-up day on September 21, 2019, a Non Governmental Organisation, known as Association of Community Awareness, ASCOA, as well as the Green Earth Environmental organization, GEE, on Saturday, September 14, 2019 rallied youths to clean up the Down Beach seashore in Limbe.
Speaking to the press after the exercise, the CEO and founder of ASCOA, Linus Ayangwoh Embe said this is the second phase of the clean-up they have done for this year and he believes they have done a lot at Down Beach coastline, while saying that the initial plan was not only to keep the coastline clean but to create more awareness.
Linus Ayangwoh added that, ASCOA is trying to create awareness so that other civil society organisations can copy from them, and also try to bring more community members on board so that in the future, they can carry out the activity. He revealed that ASCOA is also planning for a workshop to educate the Down Beach community on the importance of keeping the coastline clean. “Limbe’s Down Beach is a touristic site, reason we said it will be good to keep the coastline clean and that’s why we are here today so that when people visit the site, they might have good impression about the coastline”, Ayangwoh said. He regretted that it is not easy for them to cover all the area because of the need for more resources and manpower. He announced that in the days ahead the fisherman association will join them.
On his part, the representative of the Divisional Delegate of the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development for Fako, Adolf Tarh said the activity falls in line with national environmental laws. He said the ministry is trying at all levels to complete the chain of waste management. Tarh congratulated ASCOA and GEE and encouraged them to do more, while urging other organisations to emulate what ASCOA is doing to keep the coastline clean.
The project coordinator of ASCOA, Mukete Emmanuel, said their main objective was to document the various categories of waste they can see around the Down Beach area, keep the area clean and document in terms of tones, the quantity of waste they remove from a particular period of time. He added that they do this to be able to come out with a report to see the nature of beaches.
While the CEO of Green Earth Environmental organisation, GEE, Ada Nabila Acobta who joined ASCOA for the clean-up campaign, said it’s important to keep the surroundings clean from plastic bottles, as it goes a long way to keep the drainages clean of plastic bottles and standing water. She however believes that with the collaboration of GEE, ASCOA and other partners, they will make the awareness go everywhere.