Dubai Municipality Enhances Public Awareness on Maintaining Desert Area Cleanliness

Dubai, 24 October 2021:  Dubai Municipality has launched “Our Desert is Beautiful” campaign, under the slogan, "Together, to sustain the cleanliness of desert areas," which will continue until March next year.

The campaign is part of the Municipality’s annual plan for community awareness for all segments of the local community in the Emirate of Dubai in the field of sustainable waste management and maintaining the cultural and aesthetic appearance.

The campaign aims to educate desert area visitors and to promote a culture of waste minimization and social responsibility towards the local environment. It includes several direct field awareness visits and the dissemination of awareness through electronic awareness through social networking sites on correct behaviors on how to safely dispose of barbecue waste of desert trips.  

This initiative also aims to promote partnership with civil society institutions and the public and private sectors to integrate and synergize awareness efforts in the areas of preserving the local environment, and thus support the wise leadership’s efforts to promote the “sustainability” theme as one of the most important priorities of “Expo 2020 Dubai” and the theme of “sustainability of the city’s environment” emanating from the strategic plan of Dubai Municipality.

Dubai Municipality always seeks to enhance its community role by providing the highest levels of service in all sectors and for all segments of society by raising the general hygiene index to the best international levels and to ensure a clean and sustainable environment in the Emirate of Dubai, including the desert environment, which will witness a massive turnout in conjunction with Expo 2020. 
Hence, it is a must to remind and point out the importance of the commitment of visitors to desert areas and camping sites to maintain the cleanliness and beauty of these wonderful natural places, as it is everyone’s responsibility and duty of maintaining their cleanliness and sustainability, which are not limited to government agencies. 

As for the sites that will implement control programs and awareness activities in all other open wild areas in the emirate, Dubai Municipality will intensify awareness efforts and increase the number of beneficiaries of the direct field awareness program and users of social networking sites. 

It is worth noting that during the previous version of this campaign (2020/2021), through its awareness cadres, the Municipality was able to carry out 88 direct field visits to raise public awareness in various desert areas, which were benefitted by more than 22,000 resorts.

Through this campaign, an integrated program will be implemented to ensure the cleanliness of desert areas, through a specialized team that implements a daily cleaning program around the clock. An advertisement and an awareness video will be published via e-mail to all Dubai government employees. 

Cooperation will be intensified with all partners from the government and private sectors to enhance areas of environmental awareness for students and employees by organizing online lectures, disseminating messages and tips via e-mail and social media platforms. It also include implementing a program for supervisory and inspection visits and activating the community role by participating in field cleaning activities in these areas. 

This include program for follow-up on the provision of waste bins designated to contain the remnants of coal waste resulting from desert area visitors equipped with “nightly reflective tape” made of iron to be resistant to heat and flame, in addition to providing inspection bikes to monitor the cleanliness of the rough terrain of the desert area around the clock, which provides all the requirements necessary to carry out field tours with all quality and competence.