#OmanPride: Japan's envoy volunteers for Oman's Shatti Beach cleaning

More sports Monday 17/October/2016 21:33 PM
By: Times News Service
#OmanPride: Japan's envoy volunteers for Oman's Shatti Beach cleaning

Muscat: If you’re taking a walk on Shatti Beach in the mornings and see a Japanese gentleman picking up litter, do lend him a hand.
Mitsugu Saito, who has served as the ambassador of Japan in Oman for more than a year now, has been cleaning the beach every morning for the last month before he goes to work.
“My residence is very close to the beach and I go for a walk on the beach every morning,” he said, speaking exclusively to the Times of Oman.
“I noticed that there is a lot of garbage left that is not only bad for the beauty of the beach, but also harms the environment.”
Saito is accompanied by his wife when he goes for a walk, and has a special tool with which he collects litter. However, his efforts are met with indifference by a majority of passers-by.
“Frankly speaking, 90 per cent of the people, who see me, are indifferent. They don’t care,” he admitted. “The rest of the 10 per cent are staring at me, or express their appreciation. But the worst case is people, who come to me and tell me to pick up their garbage for them.”
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“I tell them they must pick their own garbage, but what do they do? They just throw the garbage, and that is very disappointing for me.”
Having previously served in Bangkok, Saito lives near the Shatti cinema and takes a morning walk from there to the Grand Hyatt Hotel between 6:40 am and 7:20 am. A myriad number of discarded items are often found on the beach, according to Saito.
“Mainly, the largest number of items I pick up are cigarette butts,” he revealed.
“These are very small, but they are not good for the environment because they are artificial. The second most common litter is plastic bottles, which are used to drink mineral water. But the garbage I dislike the most are diapers. I don’t understand why people throw diapers on the beach.”
“In Japan, people are disciplined and are educated as to not leaving garbage unattended,” he explained. “If they bring garbage, they also bring a garbage bag. If you have a chance to go to Japan, you will see very little or no garbage, even if there are no trash cans in the area.
“People are taught not to throw garbage on the road, but bring it back in a trash bag even if there are no dustbins,” Saito added. “This is a discipline that is not just taught at school, but at home as well. My parents always used to tell me not to throw garbage on the road but to put it in the trash cans.”
In this context, the Ambassador also had a message for the people of Oman. “I also want to say to the Muscat Municipality: please increase the number of dustbins at the beach. The number of dustbins near the beach is very small. The next time I meet with someone from the municipality, I will raise it with them.”
“I want to say to the readers, going to the beach is fine, but if you are going to have a drink or bring some food, please bring back the waste in a garbage bag.”