Egypt launches the longest clean-up campaign along the Nile to break world record

CAIRO – 1 October 2022: With participation of 1,300 volunteers, Youth Love Egypt Foundation (YLE) launched the largest ever clean-up campaign of The Nile River from waste and plastic pollution, starting from Aswan in Upper Egypt to the Delta cities of Damietta and Desouq Ali, Rashid.

The campaign was launched in preparation for Climate Summit (COP27) due to convene in Sharm El Sheikh on November 6-18, the YLE, an observer member of the United Nations Environment Program and an observer member of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in a statement.

Cleaning operations were carried out via using boats, and hygiene tools to collect plastic waste floating along the Nile River, where 342 kilos of waste were collected in only Cairo Governorate.

The event was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the presidency of the Climate Summit 27, in addition to the support of the strategic partner from the Commercial International Bank, Coca-Cola representative of North Africa, partners like Thyssenkkrupp, Inovita and Green Wave.

The event was attended by 7 governors, along with a number of representatives of diplomatic missions in Egypt like the British and the Norwegian Ambassadors, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt, the Director of the International Organization for Migration and the Director of the British Council, the statement added.

Additionally, the campaign was organized with the participation of five senior representatives of the private sector and a strategic partnership with the Red Crescent besides a number of lawmakers.

The largest coalition of NGOs, which numbered 33 members of the Egyptian Alliance for Climate Change that was established by the Youth Love Egypt Foundation last December, also participated in the campaign.

A central work room for the event has been established in cooperation with the Egyptian Red Crescent to follow up all the activities of the hygiene campaign in all governorates at the same time in Aswan - Luxor - Qena - Sohag - Assiut - Minya - Beni Suef - Giza and Cairo joint - Qalyubia - Gharbia - Dakahlia - Kafr El-Sheikh – Damietta.

It is scheduled that the campaign would enter the Guinness Book of Records in the coming days to break a record for the longest clean-up campaign along a river in the world.

The outcomes of that campaign will be presented during the upcoming Climate Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, the statement said.