Two-Days Seminar and Ceremony on World Environment Day in Mogadishu

As Somalia's civil war crisis toppled the central government of Somalia in early 1991, widespread chaos and strife swept all across the country. As a result all the national institutional structures had collapsed and the productive infrastructures of the nation have been terribly dismantled. Unscrupulous merchants have employed militia and other people in disparate need for cash to cut down trees, burn them up and produce charcoal to be shipped off to countries in the neighboring Gulf States such as the U.A.E.

The cycle of misuse and abuse continues giving rise to environmental degradation every where in Somalia. As for air and sea pollution, the situation is unbelievably hopeless. Uncontrolled planes use the air space as well as the illegal fishing and hazardous waste dumping continues in our 3,300 Km long coast-line. Worst still is the fact that no one seems to be in-charge of these most precious resources perishing at a shocking speed. These call for a quick and systematic action to counteract the ongoing wide scandal on Somalia's natural resources.

It is against this grim background the Somali Center for Water and Environment (SCWE) had been set up in Stockholm, Sweden. SCWE office was then moved to Mogadishu to implement its programs within the Country. Its main goal is to improve the situation of water and environment through public awareness-raising, research and training in Somalia. An urgent need was there to face and challenge the worsening conditions of environment in Somalia.

As a step towards achieving this goal and in commemoration of the World Environment Day (WED), the SCWE organized a two-day seminar for 70 participants from different youth groups in Mogadishu on June 4 to 5 2005. In the opening, the SCWE coordinator, Hussein M. Iman introduced the facilitator and the resource persons to the participants. He elaborated on the deteriorating condition of Somalia's environment and called up these young trainees to pioneer the making of an important choice between "life and death" on Somalia's environment and to safe the national heritage of Somalia. During those two days, several environmental protection-related topics were taught by experts and senior environmentalists in Mogadishu.

At the end of the seminar at the HADHSO Center, the SCWE center also organized a big ceremony to commemorate the World Environment Day on June 5, 2005. Many people were invited from the general public including women, artists, poets, singers and other civil society groups. The artists and poets performed shows, songs and poems about the declining Somali environment and how to protect it. As the participant emotions were heavily agitated by poems and songs, they gave positive feedback by composing several original poems themselves and citing them in front of the crowd in the ceremony.

Other dignitaries including the representatives from the Benadir Regional Authorities, the Mayor of Mogadishu City, representatives from the Transitional Federal Governmnet (TFG) including the Minister for Water and Mineral Resources Mr Mohamud Salad Nur, Vice Minister for Education, several MPs, and the president of Mogadishu University, Dr Ali Sh. Ahmed also attended the Ceremony. After the heart-touching shows, songs and poems performances on the environment, at the end Dr. Ali Sheikh Ahmed - president of MU and the Minister for Water Mr. Salad made strong speeches on the World Environment Day and stressed the importance to protect and safe Somalia's natural resources.