On the 12^th of December 2014, an ardent group of people from various age groups had joined hands ?For a cleaner and greener UAE" in the largest and most awaited campaign of the Emirates Environmental Group(EEG), Clean-Up UAE. As the name suggests, it is a campaign aimed to raise awareness for the ever growing concern of the garbage waste accumulated in the UAE. The slogan for this campaign was ?Don?t live in a dream. It?s your world. Make it Clean!?

On the Friday morning of 12^th December, we all gathered in the Emirate of Ajman to clean up the Al Tallah Area. This campaign had already left its footprints in the other Emirates as well in the past week between 6^th -12^th of December.

The United Arab Emirates is a clean, green and sustainable country. You will not find any litter or garbage dumped along the pavements of roads or in malls and not even in any of the public places like beaches, parks, gardens etc. This has been possible due to the consistent and invaluable efforts of the Municipality and other governmental organizations, also by other Non-Governmental Organizations including the EEG.

The UAE is constantly moving to the target of zero landfills by 2020, whose initiative has been taken up by Bee?ah- the environmental and waste management company. But still there are some incautious people who carelessly litter the surroundings making it dirty.

So it is the responsibility of the public to keep the environment clean for the generations to come. At the clean up campaign we all picked up non-biodegradable waste including plastic bottles, aluminium cans, glass bottles etc. and other recyclable waste including paper. We all donned gloves in our right hands, Clean Up UAE caps on our head and a garbage bag in our left hand. We started working at around 9 O? Clock in the morning.

I had attended this campaign last year as well and this year earlier also organized by the Dubai Municipality. This event helped to raise a lot of public awareness about reducing the landfills and educating people not to litter. After the event was over, the place was left clean, beautiful and pristine.

This event has been witnessing growing support over the years and I hope that more and more people join this campaign and show that they are concerned for the environment for the years to come.