Over 5,000 families and 3,000 contestants participated in a series of activities to celebrate World Environment Day (WED) in Qatar. World Environment Day, which is an initiative of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is celebrated around the world today, but activities in Qatar started as early as May 1 Organised by IAID in association with the Friends of the Environment Centre (FEC), the activities included a painting contest which saw over 3,000 participants, eco-fashion design contest aimed at addressing the need for recycling, arts workshop for teachers which was a collaborative activity supported by Faber Castell and a seminar related to this year’s UNEP world-wide theme Think.Eat.Save. “When we started to conceptualise the eco-fashion design contest, the WED team had a minimal expectation in terms of the turn-out of participation from the invited schools. Surprisingly, we received close to 200 entries with more than 500 students joining this novel activity,” said IAID Center Head and WED 2013 Project Manager, Marianne Indrinal. “Over the years, we have seen consistent growth in the participation not only from the general public but also from the private entities since we started WED celebration in Qatar seven years back. For this, we are truly grateful and proud to be associated with like-minded organisations,” said Rajesh Jadhav, Director of IAID and Production Head of WED 2013. Among the corporate houses that have been a part of WED celebrations in Qatar over the past few years are Al Khalij Commercial Bank (al khaliji) and Oryx GTL Limited. This year Ooredoo joined as the official telecom partner along with Faber-Castell, I LoveQatar.net, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Al Rayyan Theatre, The Ritz Carlton Doha and Renaissance Doha City Center Hotel — event partners for this year’s celebration. The WED celebrations will come to a close on Friday with the awarding ceremony, to be held at Al Rayyan Theatre at Souq Waqif. Aside from honouring the contest winners, the organising team will be presenting musical and dance performances. Winners will walk home with cash prizes, Apple iPads from Ooredoo, Faber-Castell premium products, gift vouchers, certificates and trophies, among others. 2,500 saplings to be distributed Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment will distribute about 2,500 saplings to visitors at major shopping malls to mark the World Environment Day being observed today. Visitors at Landmark, Villaggio, Wathnan Mall, Souq Waqif and City Center will get the saplings from tomorrow until June 8. The project is part of a national campaign to plant one million trees. Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme encourages people to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions, said the address. While the planet is struggling to provide us with enough resources to sustain its seven billion people (growing to 9 billion by 2050), FAO estimates that a third of global food production is either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts. If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from the cows themselves, and throughout the food supply chain, all end up in vain when we waste food. Source : Qatar Chronicle

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