Every day, as a diving instructor I try to promote environmental awareness but every day as I go home, I see my and other streets filled with trash, plastic bags flying, chocolate and crisps wrappers... Dahab is a beautiful place but the human pollution seems endless and every day I wonder how we could solve this problem...

I don't want to give up but I'm not waiting for a big clean up event in the hope it would solve the problem once and for all, what I now do regularly is campaign for quick street clean ups, round up some of the kids in my and other neighborhoods, ask them to help me fill some bags, they usually are very enthusiastic and love the opportunity to feel responsible. Hopefully by taking the opportunity to talk to them and teach them why it is important to respect our environment, teach them why respecting the environment is respecting themselves... 

Our quick cleans ups do not take long, an hour at most, we make a game out of it, see who can collect the most, try and make it fun but also teach them a valuable lesson and hopefully they will stop littering and maybe even tell others not to... this issue is a long term one, it will take at least one generation to change mentalities but I truly believe that if everyone does a little it is a fight that can be won.

By collecting from the streets, we are also avoiding a transfer of this problem to the sea and damage to the coral reef, Dahab has a real problem with plastic bags, by collecting them and teaching people to stop using them and if using them at the very least dispose of them in an appropriate manner, we can ensure that they don't end up in the sea. Ideally plastic bags will just become a thing of the past!