Forty nine years ago, on 22nd April 1970, millions of Americans took to the streets to protest against the deterioration of the environment. Today, 22nd April has become an annual event which is celebrated by more than a billion people around the world including guests and team members of Kurumba Maldives.
In honour of this special day, many activities were held on the island to raise awareness about the dangers of plastic pollution and to protect endangered species. “When we come together, the impact can be monumental”- a call to action from Earth Day Network had brought to everyone’s attention resulting in the significant number of participants taking part in different activities throughout the day.
Earth Day at Kurumba Maldives began with a clean-up activity around beach and lagoon areas from early morning, followed by a trip to clean up trash in a remote sandbank nearby. Later in the evening, a reef clean-up activity was also organized by Euro Divers for certified divers to participate in. A huge amount of trash mainly plastics were collected during these activities alerting everyone about the major environmental issue which we are facing: plastic pollution in the ocean.
Trash collected during the clean-up activities
While across the globe, people are looking for ways to give back to the environment in which they live, at Kurumba Maldives, we also had our ways to celebrate a responsible act of green. Tree planting activity was held with the participation of many guests from all ages. A special Mystery of Kurumba tour was conducted, educating guests in the effective recycling process at the back of our house.
The highlight of Earth Day this year at Kurumba was the launch of our “Fish-bins”. In the shape of fishes, these four wire art sculptures were individually hand crafted with an aim to use art as a call to action. Each of these fish sculptures has its own name and story and was filled with plastic bottles to symbolize the threats of plastics to the ocean and its marine life.
The event ended with an urge to everyone who cares about the future of our planet to adopt new behaviours and habits that benefit our planet, and to ensure that those actions become part of our daily routine.
