At the joint initiative of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, the MTPA, AHRIM and various other tourism operators, the Tourism Authority and the Beach Authority, and with the collaboration of local authorities, districts and villages, the delegation of the European Union as well as the National Youth Environment Council, the great family of tourism is mobilizing for the environment and declaring war on waste. Announcement made during a joint press conference held on Wednesday, 7th July at Le Suffren Hotel & Marina at 13hrs by the Minister of Environment, the Honorable Kavi Ramano.
Indeed, on July 10th, the Prime Minister, the Honorable Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, will kick off on the beach of Pointe-aux-Piments a clean-up campaign throughout the country, which will be accompanied by an awareness campaign on the duty of everyone to keep the country clean.
This initiative will include several days of cleaning of coastal areas and tourist sites in priority until the end of the year.
Désiré Elliah, vice-president of AHRIM, shared his joy to see all the actors of the tourism sector succeed “to put in place, together, this national campaign of cleaning and embellishment thanks to a beautiful spirit of collaboration, an effective teamwork.”
Finally, Lindsay Morvan, director of the Tourism Authority, recalled that this institution has among its objectives “the maintenance and cleaning of some of the tourist sites throughout the country. We are piloting the Sustainable Island Mauritius project, funded by the European Union since 2018.” This aims to assist tourism operators to make Mauritius a greener and more environmentally friendly destination.
As part of this initiative, the coast of Mauritius has been divided into several areas to be cleaned as a priority, with some beaches and tourist sites requiring urgent action to restore them.
To date, four clean-up days are on the agenda, during which participants will get involved in specific clean-up actions in their geographical areas:
- July 10, 2021: the Balaclava to Grand Bay area
- July 29, 2021: designated sites in coastal areas around the island and some tourist sites
- September 18, 2021: the designated sites of the coastal regions around the island and 4 islets (Gabriel islet, Plate islet, Bernache islet, Ile aux Bénitiers)
- October 29, 2021: designated sites in the coastal regions and some tourist sites
Initially, and given the health restrictions, tourism employees will take the lead for the first few days, in groups of up to 50. However, villagers, schoolchildren and citizens may also be involved, depending on the evolution of the sanitary situation later.
To raise awareness among citizens as well as beach and tourist site users, signs explaining the impact of waste on the environment and summarizing good habits to fight against incivilities will be installed at the designated sites. There will also be a reminder of the new regulations that penalize those who do not respect the instructions for waste disposal.
In addition, new garbage cans will be installed, and existing ones will be refurbished.
The cleaning activities will remain simple and targeted: public beaches, inland roadsides, and tourist sites.
Actions promoting sorting and recycling will be initiated in a second phase with the support of tourism actors.
