The Siva Grand Beach Hotel in Hurghada was the first to be granted the certification for its commitment to zero plastic tourism.Įgyptians use an estimated twelve billion unrecyclable plastic bags every year Last summer, HEPCA also began to offer certifications to businesses that eliminate single-use plastics. The campaign targeted restaurants, hotels, resorts, and other tourist hotspots. With the ban in place, HEPCA launched a public awareness campaign to educate the public about the harmful effects of plastic pollution on both marine life and human health, and to encourage a move toward more sustainable alternatives. “People resisted it,” says El-Ramly, “ were used to using plastic…in shops and at home.” Disposable items like bottles, cutlery, food containers and coffee cups are valued for their convenience in Egypt, and many seaside snacks and even juices are regularly served in small plastic bags. However, implementing it has proven more difficult. In the Red Sea region, Governor Abdullah supported HEPCA’s proposal, which made the legal aspect of the plastic ban relatively simple, explains El-Ramly. Is banning single-use plastic that simple? A handful of supermarket products are the key to cutting plastic waste, says Greenpeace.This device dramatically reduces harmful pollution released by car tyres.Toy giant tackles plastic waste by asking customers to send back old Barbies.“We conducted a study and confirmed that plastic is affecting marine life,” says Soha El-Ramly, the marketing director at Hurghada Environmental Protection And Conservation Association (HEPCA). Intent on protecting the Red Sea’s diverse marine life and preserving unique snorkel and dive sites for future generations, Egyptian conservationists launched a campaign to ban single-use plastics in the region last year. In the Red Sea, plastic pollution threatens more than a thousand species of colourful fish and coral, about ten per cent of which are endemic to the Red Sea, meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world. When plastic debris settles on coral, it also creates the perfect conditions for another lethal infection called black band disease. Plastic rubbish also damages coral reefs, as the bacteria that causes white band disease, which destroys coral tissue, can colonise and spread via plastics. When plastic gets into the sea, it endangers fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals, which can become entangled in or ingest debris and then suffocate, starve, or drown. The Egyptian government did not respond to a request for comment.Sharm el-Sheikh's White Knight Bay Marc Ryckaert via Wikimedia Commons Plastic pollution is destroying our oceansĪs many as thirteen million metric tons of plastic are dumped into oceans around the world each year, according to research from Pew Charitable Trusts. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that the equivalent of 16 Olympic-size swimming pools of toxic water from Egypt’s Ras Shukeir oil terminal is being dumped into the Red Sea daily. The government also lacks the resources and mechanisms to enforce penalties for environmental violations, activists say. But a lack of funding and an excess of government bureaucracy have stood in the way of maintaining the buoys or expanding the system. Starting in the 1990s, a local environmental group worked with the government to install more than 100 buoys to which tourist boats can moor. Tourist boats routinely drop anchor directly on the corals, and that can destroy more than 20 square feet of coral each time. Still, the sheer amount of development and number of tourists has inevitably taken a toll. The local diving-industry organization has begun promoting sustainable tourism practices, such as wearing coral-safe sunscreen. “Protection of this reef is not a national responsibility or a national task. Mahmoud Hanafy, a marine biology professor at the Suez Canal University in Egypt. “If not the last, this could be one of the last coral refuges worldwide,” said Dr. Mass tourism at Egypt’s beach resorts, overfishing, overdevelopment, pollution, occasional failures of the sewage system, sediment from construction and oil spills from tankers or terminals have put them at risk, according to marine biologists who study the Red Sea. There is a limit to how much they can take, however. SHARM El SHEIKH, Egypt - The vast majority of the world’s coral reefs are likely to be severely damaged in the coming decades if the planet keeps warming at its current rate.īut the wildly colorful coral reefs in the waters outside the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, where the annual United Nations climate conference is taking place, are an anomaly: They can tolerate the heat, and perhaps even thrive in it, making them some of the only reefs in the world that have a chance of surviving climate change.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |