Wonderful, it is raining is Pathein! We, Pathein citizens, have been waiting for the rain and suffered from extreme temperatures the last couple of months.  On “World Environment Day”, Wednesday the 5th of June, it rained all night and all day. So, we happily planted trees in the rain.

The theme of World Environment Day in our pilot ward 7 is “Air Pollution”. So we take action to beat air pollution by planting trees.

Before planting trees, we talked about the importance of WED day, and shared knowledge about the effects of plastic and waste. The ward 7 community, CSOs, ward administrators and ward supporting and cleaning group also shared their experiences in a knowledge sharing session of around 40 participants. After a refreshment break around 90 participants actively engaged in planting the trees in Ward 7.  

Clean Pathein – the leading organization for this WED day event – announced they would start collecting coffee mix bags, cigarette cases and newspapers for recycling. Immediately after the morning session, 14 year old young boy brought a bag of cigarette cases.

Altough our pilot ward 7 initiative cannot cope with major polluters, it can take action through planting trees and collecting cigarette cases as first step to reduce air pollution. A small step was made this World Environment Day.

“Love is in the air. But the air is highly polluted. So, we just plant a tree!”

Written by: Naw Htee Ku – DEALS Pathein City Focal Peron