Around 342 kilograms of wastes were collected from the Nile River in Cairo Governorate on Thursday.
The collection of this staggering amount of wastes was part of a clean-up campaign of the river, the largest to be launched in Egypt in recent months.
The campaign was implemented by NGO, Youth Love Egypt Foundation (YLE), which is accredited by the United Nation Environment Programme, in 13 governorates.
It came as Egypt moved ahead with preparations for the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, widely known as COP27.
The campaign started in the southern Governorate of Aswan and concluded in Damietta and Desouq, two cities located in northern Egypt on the Rashid branch of the Nile.
Around 1,300 volunteers participated in the campaign in coordination with the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources.
Other ministries took part in the campaign, including the Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Environment.
A host of foreign diplomats and United Nations officials also attended the event.
YLE CEO, Ahmed Fathi, said the campaign is the largest to be launched by the civil society to protect the Nile and preserve its biological diversity.
“Everybody is participating, including youth and school pupils,” Fathi told the Egyptian Mail.
“This contributes to increasing awareness among the members of the public and propels collective action,” he added.
He noted that the campaign also highlights the vital role of the civil society in climate action, in particular, and sustainable Development, in general.
The success of the campaign, he noted, embodies coordination between the civil society, on one hand, and the private and public sectors, on the other.
Five senior representatives of the private sector participated in the campaign, along with the Egyptian Red Crescent.
A coalition of 33 NGOs also participated in the event.
Norwegian Ambassador to Egypt, Hilde Klemetsdal, highlighted the importance of supporting youth-led action, describing young people as the ‘future’.
“The Nile is important to all of Egypt,” she told the Egyptian Mail in an interview.
Ambassador Klemetsdal said Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, would lead his country’s delegation in COP27 which will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh in November.
“We will also have our Climate Minister there the whole time, along with the Development Minister,” the Norwegian diplomat said.
“Several CEOs of green companies, the civil society, the media and MPs will also be there,” she added.
Ambassador Klemetsdal said her country harbours a lot of interest in the conference.
Meanwhile, UN Resident Coordinator, Elena Panova, said support to youth-led activities is at the core of the UN agenda.
“The clean-up campaign has symbolic importance because it is about the Nile,” Panova said.
“We know that Egypt, as Egyptians say, is the Gift of the Nile,” she added.
She expressed pleasure at participating in the campaign.
“It shows support to this tremendous river that is a lifeline to millions of Africans, including Egyptians,” the UN official said. “So it is of great importance.”
She noted that the UN has special appreciation for such campaigns.
A central operations room was set up in co-operation with the Egyptian Red Crescent to follow up on the activities of the campaign in the 13 governorates.
Clean-up works were carried out by boats and feluccas that used hygiene tools, including nets, to pick up plastic waste from the river.
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