WISTA organizes two kilometer coastal clean-up drive

Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Sri Lanka organized its first ever coastal clean-up initiative on January 26th from Dehiwala to Mount Lavinia spanning over 2Km of coastal line.

This event signified the importance WISTA places in its endeavor to protect the deep sea and coastal line in accordance with the Associations’ mandate on leading strategic CSR initiatives.

Amongst the Associations, companies and environmental conscious enthusiasts who volunteered and partnered WISTA in this initiative, Dr. Sevvandi Jayakody, Senior Lecturer of the Wayamba University whose research interest is on understanding the impacts of human disturbances to aquatic environments with special reference to animal behavior, water quality and species occupancy, evaluating the effectiveness of environmental policies and management plans in marine and fresh water ecosystems, graced the occasion as the chief guest.

The Waste Management Authority and the Sri Lanka Navy rendered their support to WISTA which went a long way in creating an effective and successful campaign. The event was also graced by officials from the Sri Lanka Navy, Waste Management Authority and South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) co-operate partner of WISTA Sri Lanka, with many volunteersfrom the Shipping and Trading Industries and environmental conscious individuals who joined hands in being part of this timely initiative by WISTA.

All participants gathered by 7 a.m. from the entry point at Sri Dharmapala Mawatha and progressed towards both Dehiwala and Mt. Lavinia coastal belt cleaning up debris and making everyone conscious of the great pollution that’s affecting our beautiful coastal line.

Members of the WISTA team took great strides in creating a muchneeded awareness in the industry and taking a lead role in addressing the need to create strategic CSR projects. The waste collected was segregated as plastic/pet bottles, glass, paper and mixed garbage which was sent to the local authorities re-cycling plants; a total of 200 bags of segregated garbage were collected by volunteers using 100 percent bio-degradable garbage bags which was another first for WISTA.

WISTA aims to continue its endeavor to be a voice in protecting our coastal line and the marine life and hope to carry out many such projects in the future as it firmly believes in giving back to the environment. WISTA has been successful over the years in breaking down gender barriers within the Shipping and Logistics Industry by encouraging more women to join and build career paths.