UNESCO: Pollution caused by plastic wastes in seas harms world food security

ALEXANDRIA - 11 July 2018: The Director-General of United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) Audrey Azoulay stressed that the pollution caused by plastic wastes that are thrown in seas has grave consequences on the world food security.

This remark came in Azoulay's speech delivered by the Head of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in Egypt Amany el Sikaily on her behalf on the occasion of the World Oceans Day in Bibliotheca Alexandrina on Wednesday.

Azoulay asserted that the discovery of a new "dead zone" in the Gulf of Oman has shed light on the phenomenon of the presence of oxygen-depleted regions in the oceans besides the problems of overfishing and pollution.

She further underlined that the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed on January 5 the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to encourage international scientific cooperation in order to encounter such kind of challenges.

The IOC affiliated to the UNESCO will carry out preparations for this decade, the official affirmed.