Over the last decade, the number of tourists in Cox's Bazar has increased exponentially. This huge number of tourists is regularly damping waste like chips packets, polythene, plastic bottles etc. And it is being tough for beach authorities alone to keep the beach clean. The Cox's Bazar Student Society (CSS) recently took initiative to clean the beach up. They started a campaign named "Clean Cox's Bazar Campaign". The plan was to gather volunteers to clean the waste from the beach starting from Kolatoli point to Laboni point as well as to create awareness among the people and tourists to keep the place clean.
On January 09, Cox's Bazar Student Society gathered all the volunteers and started the campaign. A group of volunteers dividing themselves into different sub groups were picking up the plastic bottles, chips packets and other waste. It caught pace when the local people also showed their support and took part as well. Another group of people at the same time were reaching out to the people to create awareness. They went to the tourists, local people, hotels and restaurants to let them know about the consequences of dumping waste at the beach and encouraged them to dump waste in the dustbin which they provided.
The whole campaign was planned by the current committee of CSS. Minhaj Mohammad Mimo, president of Cox's Bazar Student Society, led the initiative from the front. He is also the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of a software and game development company, Battery Low Interactive. Mohammad Masud Karim, co-founder and presidium member of CSS had a handful impact of this campaign. The campaign was inaugurated in presence of Mohammad Zillur Rahman, police super, Tourist police and AKM Fazlul Karim Chowdhury, principal of Cox's Bazar Government College. Mr Karim thanked CSS and stated, "I hope this initiative will not stop after today. Rather all of us will try to keep the beach clean from now onward and help the beach committee and Tourist Police."
Mohammad Zillur Rahman said, "We need to prepare for a better tomorrow. For that we need to keep the beach as well as neighbourhood area clean." Minhaj Mimo said, "By today, we got to know which areas are being polluted mostly. We will try to provide dustbins there. This huge work of cleaning cannot be done solely by the authorities. We all need to play our part in it." Mohammad Masud Karim, co-founder and presidium member of CSS, assured everyone that CSS will always keep working for the betterment of Cox's Bazar.
Previously, CSS conducted events like 'Save the Rohingya', planting more than ten thousand trees in the seashore etc. CSS has about 2,000 volunteers who are students from Cox's Bazar. With this enthusiastic young team, it is hoped CSS will be trying to make Cox's Bazar a better place.
The writer is a fourth year student of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IUT. He can be reached at [email protected]
