The Uliga community conducted a day-long underwater cleanup last weekend. Originally planned from Loelen to Lotodrik wetos, the over 50 volunteers could not reach the other sites due to the heavily infested waters of Loelen and Lejolimen.
Nearly 15,000 pounds of old tires, boat parts, aluminum cans, construction materials, household appliances and many more were collected from the lagoon. To transport the underwater garbage, it took many boat trips to the Uliga Fish Market Dock to unload the debris onto dump trucks to be transported to Majuro dump. Aside from the underwater activity, a beach cleanup was also held on Lotodrik weto. Team Nito collected plastics, an old car battery and lots of other eyesore garbage on their beach.
This event was part of the island wide World Oceans Day celebration. The aim of the cleanup activity is to encourage the Uliga residents especially the youth to do something about the staggering solid waste problem that is currently plaguing the capital city, affecting not only our health and well being of residents and marine resources people depend on.
After the underwater cleanup, a few youngsters noticed how the lagoon was now more “blue” than before. The youth want to have this a continuous weekend activity to rid all underwater debris to have a bluer lagoon to swim and fish in.
Read more about this in the June 22, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.