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Volunteers clean up Saipan lagoon, shore of litter
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Posted on Apr 24 2009
Volunteers collected barbecue pits, soda and beer cans, plastic bottles and all other trash from the Saipan lagoon yesterday as part of the cleanup activities in April in observance of Environmental Awareness Month.
On the shoreline and beaches were much more trash—from cigarette butts to broken glasses, plastic spoons and forks, bottles, cans, plastics and other picnic stuff.
Carlos Ketebengang, Division of Environmental Quality coordinator for the lagoon cleanup, said over 35 volunteers took part in the activity.
“There are 15 divers and those who are in the water, and about 20 picking up trash on the shoreline…This has been a successful beach and lagoon cleanup,” he told Saipan Tribune.
Besides DEQ, the other volunteers were from the Coastal Resources Management and the Bureau of Environmental Health.
The cleanup started from the Oleai Beach Bar and Grill beach to the 13 Fishermen Monument beach.
Evonne Sablan, an employee at BEH, said it’s nice to help out in cleaning up the environment.
“This is my third trash bag,” she said during an interview at the beach near the Quartermaster Road intersection. “We picked up mostly cigarette butts, candy wrappers and broken glasses,” she added.
On April 17 and 18, an islandwide cleanup drew the participation of over 4,000 volunteers, highlighting the observance of Environmental Awareness Month, led by DEQ, along with Beautify CNMI and partner agencies.
