In Mecca, dreams of a 'green hajj'
MECCA, Aug 1 ( AFP) - A smaller carbon footprint, less waste and more environmentally friendly -- this year's pilgrimage to Mecca, dramatically scaled down due to coronavirus, has opened up the prospect of a “green hajj”.
In addition to being a logistical and security headache, one of the planet's largest gatherings, which drew some 2.5 million people last year, also typically poses huge environmental challenges.
The procession of so many worshippers, over a short time and in a limited space, results in an assault on the desert kingdom's delicate environment.
Thousands of vehicles generate substantial air pollution, while the pilgrims leave behind an avalanche of waste, including enormous quantities of plastic water bottles.
This year's hajj, limited to a maximum of 10,000 attendees, was by all accounts literally a breath of fresh air.
But for environmental activist Nouhad Awwad, it's not so much the size of the crowd that determines the impact on the environment but more “our collective behaviour”.
“This year's hajj, although taking place at a difficult time globally, can be a source of hope,” the Greenpeace campaigner told AFP.
“It gives an idea of what a green pilgrimage could look like,” she added.
The scenes in Mecca since the hajj began on Wednesday are very different from those of past years.
Rather than the vast crowds that move between the sites, casting rubbish as they go and sometimes prone to deadly crushes, the movement of the pilgrims has been limited and orderly.
Even the pebbles they use to symbolically “stone the devil” have been sanitised, as part of elaborate amenity kits provided by authorities that include disinfectant and masks.
“Everything is clean and there are only a few municipal workers collecting the small amounts of garbage,” Azim Allah Farha, a pilgrim from Afghanistan who has performed the hajj several times before, said at Mount Arafat, the site of one of the main rituals.
One of those workers, Rahim Fajreddine, recalls the hundreds of tonnes of rubbish -plastic bags, cans and food plates -- left in past years at the rocky hill outside Mecca where pilgrims pray and repent in the high point of the hajj.
“Large numbers of workers had to be mobilised to remove all the debris they left behind as they passed,” he recalled.
Until recently, the environment was not a central concern of Saudi Arabia when it came to the hajj.
As “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”, the kingdom was concerned primarily with accommodating as many pilgrims as possible, mindful of the long waiting lists for Muslims, who must complete the hajj at least once in their lifetime if they are able.