ILD CLEAN NEWS ...

[Klaus]

I Love Dahab CLEAN

- objective target -
"To make Dahab the cleanest city of the country" ... deadline 1. dec. 2009

* Visitor's tax
* Plasticbottle deposit
* Plasticbag fee
* Modern garbage collection and recycling

* Dahab CLEAN Social Club
 - Education
 - Community projects

------------------------------------

What you see above was the subject in our meeting with the Mayor of Dahab 12 days ago ... the Mayor liked the concept and promised an answer regarding the support of the City Dahab and  the Gouvernment authorities ... our next meeting with the Mayor should be tomorrow 11 am ... looking forward ...

[Klaus]

ILD CLEAN broadsheet



in Dahab's brand new commercial magazine
 


Thanx to all the suporters ...

I see a Community rising ... 

[Klaus]

Dear Dahab Lovers ...

Today was another positive meeting with the Mayor of Dahab ... he forwarded our I Love Dahab CLEAN project to the authorities of the Gouvernment of Sinai ... they ask now for a detailed action plan in english and arabic language ... everybody is welcome with suggestions, contacts and support ... looking forward

[Sonia]

Thank you Klaus, that was the best present for my birthday... :-)
Wish us all a big success,
baci, Sonia

[Roland]

I love Dahab Clean Meeting 7.12.07
Report by Roland Kissling

Participants (18)
Klaus
Eva
Mohsen
Charly
Guro
Sonia
Marda
Nadeem
Simone
Katharina
Sigi
Mosaad
Samy
Barbara
Christian
Ian
Jessica
Roland
…


Discussion

Introduction Klaus
Klaus explained why he started this project with his wife Eva. The target is to make Dahab the cleanest city by 2009, financed with an entry fee for every tourist (first idea is 2 euro). The major of Dahab was already interested after a first visit and passed the proposal to higher officials - they asked him for an action plan for Dahab. And there is already an action plan by help of EU, so we should align the 2 plans.

Guro
Guro, member of Blackboard Dahab project www.blackboard-dahab.com , is explaining about this action plan for south sinai. According to her, the sewage and rubbish problem is already mentioned in the plan. We could use several of these action points to integrate and detail them in our plan. For these action points we need to find responsible persons from our community, who make more research and work on these topics. We want to have an action plan ready by the middle of january.

Eva:
We need control about the money. It’s important that nobody can take the amount to his own pocket.

Sigi
Why is the garbage system working in Naama Bay, and not in Dahab?
Because of the big hotels who take care.
In Dahab there is also money collected in the hotels for garbage, where is this money going?

Eva:
We need to look in detail in all the different kind of systems, in Sharm, St Catherine, Nuweiba. How is it working there? Then we bring the information together.

Klaus:
I tried to invite the responsible person for Dahab – he didn’t answer back, because he said he didn’t get support from the government.
We can use the Ilovedahab-Forum (www.ilovedahab.com) and Chat to stay in contact about this topic.
There are also a lot of people not here now, who want to support the project.

Katharina
Education is a very important point, because a lot of residents simply don’t know the danger for the sea (plastic bags for turtles, etc.). So we need to go to schools, talk to teachers, etc.

Sigi
What will happen with the plan later? Will we have support? It would be important to have the right persons to push these things in the government.

Klaus
When we have the action points ready for the local government, we will make it popular also in newspapers and spread it to the publicity. We will be much bigger in the future.
But we start with the legal way: we went to the major, and he was so kind to listen to us.

Katharina
We need to involve the European Union. Because they already spent a lot of money for the Sinai. Where is the money?

Mohsen:
We also need the sheikhs and religious leaders, to explain them our project. The Koran talks a lot about cleaning and clean environment, but the people simply don’t listen. So they could explain the importance to the people.

Eva
We need to move one and make decisions. Its important to have people, who put the action plan together.

Samy
We need also small signs along the streets like “keep Dahab clean” - to tell the people in a nice way to keep also the streets around their houses clean.

Sonia
Every one of us can also translate the mail from Klaus in his own language and spread it out to his friends, also in Arabic language.

Katharina
We should also invite the major to the meeting so he can see the efforts and the people.

Eva:
Yes, but we need to organise us first and present results and actions points.

Christian: (environmental center)
There is also a volunteer who did her PH.D. about waste-management. She already collected a lot of information. We should also align our action plan to the big action plan - not make it another big plan, standing against each other.

Klaus:
The goal of the Dahab social club is to talk to everybody, Bedouins, Egyptians, Expats to built a strong community for the I Love Dahab CLEAN project.
Make competitions, like “the cleanest street of the month”, or to organize all the  rocks on the side to the walls for a nicer, cleaner view.

Sam
Would be good to invite the president of the national security to explain him about the plans and the people involved, that they love Dahab and want to do something about.

Roland
We have a lot of enthusiasm, but little knowledge. We should invite experts and let them tell us about their experiences. I heard f.e. that the owner of nirvana tried to clean Dahab for a while, so we should use all the knowledge available.

Eva
Not all of these experts will come, so it would be important that the working-groups go to them and interview them and come back with the results.

Mohsen
We should also visit the French company who cleans Alexandria, because it’s the cleanest city of Egypt by now – the do everything by themselves, without any official help.

Ian (came late)
I stopped doing beach cleanups. The most important thing for me is to keep the message alive. If you want to have a change, change the people. Make them want to have a clean city.
We are now doing educational work. You need to have a strong belief, a nice way from the heart. And do it again and again. For an NGO you need a charity license to collect money. We can support you with your idea.


Work groups

Visitor’s Tax
Plastic bottle deposit
Plastic bag fee
Modern Garbage Collection & Recycling
Dahab CLEAN Social Club
…

Next meeting:
Friday 14.12 - 5 pm
TOTA's beer garden ? when it's confirmed with Adel ( Tota )

[uhlmannn]

Hi! We are a hungarian couple and live in Dahab. We have(?) a flat here, but there are some problems with the papers and all. We plan to stay here in every year about six months. We don't know too much about the cleaning project but we plan to join. Norbert Uhlmann and Eva Miklosi

[Jaya]

Hi

Really good idea and i hope it will be successfull....real challenge!!

Maybe posting a person on the entrance of dahab  that let pass visitors after paying tax could be a solution:

In that way :
1/ you create a job/income for a bedouins  family
2/ it could be used to make feel visitors of natural protected area by giving against the tax a leaflet with some usefull information about protecting the sea, corals ...environment  and others usefull and welcome information. (like some natural reserve do!)
The leaflet can be sponsored by businesses, hotels, diving center, restaurant....against them advertising in it!

Also i believe that the word "tax" is usualy assimilate to gouvernement fee so if a NGO is doing it than you may call it "eco - participation"   or something like this!!
I do believe that many visitors would feel better about a participation for  eco reasons and action to respect the nature ,That to be taxed!!

Well just a feeling and an idea....need to be developped!!??

Love to all
Jaya



 

[Klaus]

next I Love Dahab CLEAN meeting will take place on
friday 15th of february
6 pm in Tota ...
looking forward

[whitehawk]

HI there to all
My opinion if it may be:
I don't think its a good idea about taxing people at the entrance of Dahab!
The trash collecting system is just bad. All the hotels and camps and restaurants are already paying fees. Where is the money? So you are going to let the gov. collect the money?? "cough, cough" who is going to be honest here?
Like Mohsen proposed previously about a GOOD professional company like in Alex would be much, much better. And they are the ones who will collect the trash and the money.
The Natural Reserves (National Parks) should be a different company more specialized, educated on nature and sea and the corals and to GUARD it, they get their (higher) fees at the entrances to the parks only. Who is cleaning up ras abu galloum or wadi gnai for an example? the bedoiuns..
The signs and posters and other propaganda doesn't cost much anyway, which can be dealt with contributions and donations, etc.
A very important point as someone mentioned already and I totally agree is the EDUCATION of the young ones (like my daughter) of the Dahab society, for the prevention of this local littering, for this will be the future.
And thirdly, what we need is a good street map of Dahab with names and numbers!
So we know how to control things on the round table, heheh ... The Rubbish Collectors CO.  :
"where did you see the litter?" " I saw it in the Fanar Street at number 35". "Did you see who threw this trash on the street?" 'No" "Well then send a fine of 200 Le to that house 35 on Fanar Street and if nobody is there now , send the fine to the police for the penalty collection " ....police get there share of course,  pay or get busted two weeks jail!.... etc .. some  might need to get busted to learn..
as an  example folks.

 Well I have been in Dahab now for 20 years, and Dahab is not Sharm or Nuweiba.
The problem about Dahab for the last ten years IS that it has been getting the farmers from Egypt with no education at all related to tourism, as employees.Now this is another problem but its related. These people who work should get a Dahab ID.This ID proves he speaks at least one second language like English or German or both and knows how to behave to the tourists politely and stop littering. The police can catch someone with out this ID , they take him and he has to have this education in the city with others that have been caught and at the night school he can get a temporary ID till he finishes his education. Lets say maybe 6 months so be it enuff. And that should be the same for the drivers and taxis.
 Most of the littering IS NEITHER from the tourists nor the expats nor the educated Egyptians.

Cheers to all and Prost to Klaus for The EforTs

Amin

DJ White Hawk

[Klaus]