LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Project Surat is an NGO in Surat working towards making this planet a sustainable living. They work collaboratively with the locals of Surat in order to spread awareness towards creating an environment friendly world. One of their programmes includes beach cleanups every weekend. The volunteers of Project Surat together with all the resources go to dumas beach and collect the trash in cement bags. Once that is done, they give the trash bags to the SMC trucks and then the trash is assorted into recyclable waste. This idea personally interested me because I’ve realised the importance of shifting to a sustainable lifestyle for a better future. One of the activities that’d help me towards the same was beach clean up.
The 6th and 14th SDG which are: Clean water and Sanitation and Life below water are the points which are not considered in the top priority list of the Surat Government. It is equally important as to other issues such as health care. There are enornomous number of diseases that can spread due to effuent water. The water that we drink is purified version of the sea water and if the sea water is polluted due to the waste we throw on the beaches it’s going to come right back at us by spreading water related diseases.
Out of the 17 Sustainable development goals one of them is ‘life below water’. Healthy oceans and seas are essential to our existence. They cover 70 percent of our planet and we rely on them for food, energy and water. Yet, we have managed to do tremendous damage to these precious resources. We must protect them by eliminating pollution and overfishing and immediately start to responsibly manage and protect all marine life around the world.
The global issue ‘marine life’ have a few goals that the community can contribute in, such as: reduce marine population, protect and restore ecosystems, reduce ocean acidification, sustainable fishing, conserve coastal and marine areas, end subsidies contributing to overfishing, increase the economic benefits from sustainable use of marine resources, increase scientific knowledge, research and technology for ocean health, support small scale fisher, implement and enforce International sea law.
This issue is locally as well as globally concerned because it’s not an issue that is just restricted to the city or the country it’s a concern for this planet. Our planet is covered by 71 percent of the water and if we don’t take steps to sanitise that water there’d be no clean water left for the future generations. Moreover, there have already been diseases such as Cholera and typhoid that spread due to trash water all over the globe. I knew about this issue when I was taught about it in Grade 6 in one of the units of Unit of Inquiry(UOI) subject. I researched more about this when an article popped up in the news alerting the audience about the current situation.
This issue has not only helped me be alert about the ocean situation but it has also helped me find answers of my questions that are drawn out of curiosity while researching. It has helped me take actions of things that triggers my concerns and force me to implement my knowledge in my actions. It has also helped me in organising my thoughts into categories. For example, the minute I knew about the issue of ‘low levels of water sanitization’ I had 4 options: Urgent and Important, Important but not urgent, urgent but not important and not urgent and not important. I chose to filter that information into urgent and important which helped me take the next step towards sustainability. Now, shifting to a sustainable lifestyle has become a part of my daily routine and I’m making progress.