Oman

Drive to clear detergent packets from beaches

 
Efforts continued on Monday to clear loads of detergent packets that were washed ashore after a wooden ship sank outside Oman’s territorial waters.

Fortunately, the packets are still sealed.

Officials from Environment Authority of Oman said the beach cleaning will be conducted at Al Seeb beach at 8 am on Tuesday.

On Monday, cleaning was conducted for the beaches of Qurayat, Khairan, Sifah, Muscat, which also included Qantab.

A number of diving and volunteer teams participated in the campaign.



Specialists have conducted a field survey of the beaches and assessed the environmental situation in the regional waters to ensure there is no damage or pollution.

'We spotted large number of detergent pouches which were dumped in the sea, washed ashore causing serious environmental issue,' said Ammujam Raveendran, representative of Save Oman Beaches NGO.

The Environment Authority in the South Al Batinah Governorate launched a campaign to clean the beaches of Daymaniyat Islands Nature Reserve.

Volunteers from several other NGOs joined hands together and worked tirelessly to remove the large quantities of pouches.

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