Caracas, September 16 (EFE). – The Venezuelan government, this Saturday, on the occasion of World Beach Day, deployed thousands of workers and volunteers to 167 coasts to eliminate microplastics, a problem for the country, which has the largest coastline in the world facing the Caribbean.
The Ministry of Ecosocialism (Environment) reported on social networks of a multi-day collection of garbage on beaches in the ten states with access to the Caribbean Sea and other inland regions such as Portuguesa (centre), where a dozen people removed 16 kilograms of garbage from a spa.
“We, from the Ministry of Ecosocialism, are operating on 167 beaches across the country, coordinating with regional and local authorities,” said the head of this state department, Josué Lorca, during a clean-up operation in the state of Anzoátegui (northeast).
He explained that members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), workers of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and other public entities are involved in the sanitation facilities organized by the executive, while “thousands of volunteers” are deployed in almost all 498 suitable beaches in the country.
Microplastics “are now one of the main sources of environmental pollution,” so the call is to “review all our consumption patterns and solid waste collection systems,” he said.
He explained that in many cases this type of waste goes “unnoticed,” but it is a “serious problem,” he stressed.
About half of Venezuela’s states are washed by the Atlantic Ocean, which is why environmental groups have called on the executive branch to invest more resources in preserving beaches and policing companies and people who pollute these waters. EFE
PS/BDP