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In every clean-up campaign we participate in, I always remember the saying of the historian Dimitrios Kambouroglou, which perfectly describes our goal: "A clean thing is not that which has been solved, but that which has not been cleaned". What does this mean? That our ultimate goal as the Office of the Environment Commissioner is neither clean-up campaigns nor actions that will bring some kind of rehabilitation to a contaminated part of our Earth. That it is something that can be done and done and done again. But no matter how many times we "wash" our coasts, no matter how many times we "wash" our seabed, we will never get it back to where it was before it was polluted.
That is why the goal is not to recycle clean-up campaigns but to start reducing, reusing, recycling ourselves, so that every material gets the management it deserves. In other words, to put into practice and experience all those "R's" that we hear every day: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. But let's start by first putting into practice the most basic "R" that is the alpha and omega of our own efforts. The "Refuse", that is the refusal of the action and energy that pollutes, that destroys the balance, that greys and clouds our water, air and soil.
The President and Head of the International Network "Let's Do It! World" and "World Cleanup Day" Ms. Heidi Solba very aptly put it: "Litter is the symptom, the cruel result of our way of life that needs to be redesigned, out of the cycle." And today's campaign is the symptom of our own actions.
With the governance programme as our roadmap, we are working with coordinated and targeted actions to cultivate an environmental culture through collaboration with all Ministries and Deputy Ministries, the academic community, organised citizen groups and environmental organisations to prevent, as far as we are allowed, any pollution. And today's campaign, which we are co-organising with the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research (DFA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, which I thank for their cooperation, aims to make all of us participants understand that we must finally stop polluting. We need to stop being in a country that has been 'solved' and start living in a country that has not been 'reaped'.
Your presence here, Your Excellency, Mr. President of the Republic, does not indicate but confirms your personal commitment and involvement in the collective effort to protect the environment, which is a top priority of the governance programme. Your presence puts into practice what you told us on the first day of our appointment. That we ourselves must be the models and examples of the change we desire. Under your leadership we have no choice but to follow and emulate your example.
I owe a big thank you to TATHE, my team at the Office of the Environment Commissioner, and the Board of Directors of "Let's Do It" for their cooperation, to the President and members of the Zygios Community Council for their hospitality, to the Principal of Zygios Primary School Mrs. Margarita Agathokleous and to the Parents' Association of the school for their immediate response to the participation of the school's children in today's campaign.
We would also like to express our sincere thanks to the Submarine Disaster Unit, the Cyprus Reserve Frogmen Association, the Coast Police, the Larnaca Submarine Activities Group "Hippocampus" and all the volunteers for their participation.
With everyone's help and commitment we can bring the change we want and leave a better environment for future generations. It is therefore a great honour for me to invite to the podium His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, to launch the "Let's Do It! Cyprus 2023" which, as every year, is supported by the Environment Commissioner's Office.
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