National Beach Cleaning Campaign 2017
9/21/2017
SriLankan Airlines’ Environmental volunteers lent their helping hand to another national cause; the island wide coastal clean-up campaign organized by the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) of Sri Lanka on the 21st Sep 2017 at the Negombo beach. The National Coastal Clean-up program is an annual event organized by MEPA on third Saturday of September each year with the collaboration of Ocean Conservancy. This year they organized the event for the 9th time and the event set out to clean the entire coastline of the country during the 15th– 22nd week of September.
The coastal regions of Sri Lanka have been increasingly subjected to pollution during the last few decades. According to a recent study the underlying factors for pollution in the coastal region are the growing population concentrated on the coast, and increased development activities such as tourism and industries.
As planned by MEPA, 21st September was the date given to clean the Negombo beach and a team of 15 members of the airlines’ very own ‘Green Volunteers’ took part in this national event along with more than 500 like-minded volunteers from different fields and schools in this timely conservation programme.