Awareness Raising Programs on Preventing Marine Pollution for the Community
Marine pollution is the contamination of oceans with chemicals and trash. It has now become a global problem. The main reason for marine pollution is human activities such as improper disposal of garbage, industrial effluents, oil spills, etc. Loss of marine biodiversity, destruction of marine habitats including corals, accumulation of microplastics in food chains are a few of many negative impacts of marine pollution.
As per the Marine Pollution Prevention Act No.35 of 2008, one of the main functions of this Authority (MEPA) is to create awareness amongst different groups of the community of the need to preserve the marine environment. Since 2000, MEPA has taken several initiatives to enhance the knowledge of Sri Lankans regarding the importance of the marine environment, ecosystem conservation, and prevention of marine pollution, etc. Currently, there are several ongoing programs to raise awareness on the protection of marine ecosystems in the public; school children, teachers, potential marine polluters such as the fisheries community to make them aware of the importance of the marine environment and actions that need to be taken to protect the marine environment.
Details of the ongoing awareness program designed to cater to the following different sectors.
School Marine Groups (SMG):
The Authority has established more than 300 SMGs in the schools along the coastal belt around the country. At present nearly 7500 Marine Environment Pioneers are educated in this context, and they are currently actively involved in the continuous training programs. Annual competitions are also conducted such as posters, essays, quizes and poems among the students and awards, certificates and prizes are also offered for encouraging them. These competitions are organized to appreciate the efforts of the participants and also to encourage them to conserve the marine environment, while converting them into environment lovers by changing their attitudes.
A series of workshops were held in all 14 coastal districts to make the teachers who are directly connected with the School Marine Groups more familiar with the procedure of guiding students to become Marine Environment Pioneers. The knowledge and enthusiasm to protect and conserve oceans and related ecosystems is transferred to students by teachers using the School Marine Environment Guidebook developed according to the guidelines of MEPA. Accordingly, students from Grades 6 to 10 are required to follow these lessons. In each year an evaluation process is carried out by MEPA and medals which are ranging from Silver to Green/Gold along with certificates will be awarded for students who successfully complete the assigned activities.
These young people are also considered as the best group of messengers to spread the message of the importance of preserving the marine environment to the society more efficiently and effectively.
Other initiatives in order to aware the General Public
A number of programs are conducted to increase the awareness among the potential polluters such as hotels and other coastal industries as well as the general public on marine environmental pollution and the importance of the protection of the marine environment. Representatives selected mainly from fisheries communities and hoteliers covering all the coastal districts around the island are requested to attend these awareness programs in order to achieve the target of a clean, pollution-free marine environment. These awareness programs are organized by the district / provincial offices of MEPA which are located in all the coastal districts.
Awareness Raising programs for the Fisheries Sector:
There are 21 fishery harbors and a number of anchorages and boatyards around the island. Contribution to marine pollution from the Fishery sector is quite significant. MEPA is involved in the enhancement of awareness within the fisheries community and fishery harbor officials around the country to reduce marine pollution by the fishery sector, through awareness meetings, workshops, daily morning announcements, flyers, and leaflets. The main focus here is addressing waste management by the fishery sector.
Awareness Raising Programs for Hotel Sector:
There are a large number of tourist hotels which are located in all the coastal areas around the country. Most of the hotels are situated in the Western, Southern, and Eastern Provinces as those are tourists’ hot spots due to beautiful beaches. This leads to beach and nearshore pollution due to the intensity of careless waste discharge in addition to the untreated waste discharging from the hotels. In order to address this problem, MEPA has initiated several steps to enhance the knowledge on the importance of the preservation of the marine environment.
Awareness boards
Awareness boards/ hoardings have been installed at the beaches in all the 14 coastal districts for enhancing the awareness of the general public reminding them to keep the beaches cleaner. These are displayed at the beaches.
Distribution of Publications
- Sathsamudura’ – Annual Magazine:
Since 2010, MEPA has published the ‘Sathsamdura’ bilingual Magazine, which is launched on every World Oceans Day which falls on the 8th of June every year. This magazine includes articles authored by the experts in the marine & maritime sector as well as the novel research findings of university professionals, students and scientists in different areas of marine and maritime sector. - ‘Samudura Puwath’ – News Letter:
This is the first publication of MEPA which was started in 2004. Samudura Puwath is a quarterly publication which includes articles that aims to enhance the knowledge of school children on various subject areas of the marine environment. - Flyers/ Leaflets:
MEPA distributes awareness materials such as leaflets on several subject areas related to marine environment and those are available in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages. Importance of marine environment, oil spills and the relevant legal background, marine ecosystems, marine endangered species are some of the topics discussed in these leaflets.
All of these publications are freely available at the head office of MEPA.
Exhibitions :
MEPA conducts exhibitions in schools and at national events such as “Sri Lanka NEXT”, “Gam Udawa”, “Deyata Sewana” etc. During these events, various kinds of exhibits are displayed to raise awareness among the public on marine pollution, oil spills, marine ecosystems, plastic pollution, invasive alien species, etc.
Documentary films and TV Discussions, Radio programs
MEPA uses visual media such as TV programs to improve the knowledge of the community on the importance of the marine environment and marine pollution prevention. So far MEPA has produced four documentary films that were telecasted via popular TV channels and these were also shown at workshops and other public gatherings.
MEPA used a famous radio channel to enhance the knowledge of marine environments. “Samuduraka Asiriya” is one of such major radio programs aired with discussions with different experts in the marine and the maritime field.
MEPA uses visual media to enhance the knowledge of the public through discussions/interviews shown on TV. On several occasions, such programs were telecasted commemorating World Oceans Day on June 8th and the International Coastal Clean-up Day on the 3rd Saturday in September each year.
