Let’s not wait for a day to conserve environment

SALALAH: Unlike previous years the Directorate of Environment in Dhofar marked the World Environment Day on a small scale by planting some tress in the directorate premises on Sunday. The scale of event was restricted due to Covid-19 pandemic, as very limited people participated in the event that too wearing masks and taking care of hand hygiene etc. Dr Ahmed Abdullah Mahroos al Saiari, Director General of Environment and Climate Affairs, planted trees and dwelt upon the importance of the Day. He emphasized upon the practices the humankind should adopt in day to day life to conserve environment. The event themed ‑‑ ‘Together we can act for nature’ ‑‑ was organised jointly by the Directorate of Environment in Dhofar and Oman Construction and Engineering Company (OCEC) and Loban Technical Trading Company. Keeping in mind the social distancing factor, only a few employees of the Directorate took part in the event. Dr Al Saiari called for everyone’s involvement in environment protection for which one should not wait for a day like ‘World Environment Day’. “Every day is a day for environment and the nomenclatures of such days come as reminders for us to deliver our duties as human being, which consumes the most from the environment but contributes the least.” “We can start from home the protection of environment by practicing conservation of water, plantation of trees and optimal use of electricity and fuel. We need to pass on this to our children. Our practices would make an impact on them and they would emerge as responsible citizens. It is all up to us how we take it,” he said while reminding how much people take from environment on daily basis and act carelessly when their turn of giving back to the nature comes. Rakesh Jha, Managing Director of the OCEC, put emphasis on awareness and enforcement of the best practices by the companies in this regard. “We cannot compensate fully what we get from the nature but can certainly minimise the adverse impacts by following certain norms and adopting the best practices. He involved some schoolchildren in the campaign to make it broad-based and adopted social media to reach to the schoolchildren. He thanked Daksha Jha and Niyatee for participating in the campaign and being part of the great initiatives of the Directorate in conserving the environment. Dr Fawaz, Dr Salim Sakroon and Mohammed Hardan shared valuable information on the native plants of Oman on this occasion.