A clean, stable and healthy environment is a pillar of human rights without which human beings are not able to enjoy their rights and access to sanitation, water and health.

This is the view of the Universal Periodic Review ( UPR) Non- Governmental Organisations ( NGO) Working Group ( WG) which this week joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Environment Day under the theme, ‘ Beat Plastic Pollution, Ecosystem Restoration’.

“We see that these rights are threatened by the harmful rise of plastic material pollution. As a result of our negligent, destructive habits, and failure to respect our historical cultural ways of respecting our environment, we see widespread littering.

“This is one of the consequences of us forgetting that our individual actions affect others in our communities,” the Working Group said in its statement presented at the commemoration in Gaborone.

Led by Ditshwanelo, the Working Group stated that irresponsible disposal of waste material leads to animals and wildlife consuming it. It listed major environmental challenges for the people as drought, desertification and climate change.

There is a serious likelihood that climate change will lead to increased challenges to the livestock industry, arable agriculture and access to water - in particular, clean drinking water among urban and rural communities. It explained that communities who live in remote areas are the most vulnerable to these challenges, in spite of not having contributed to the causes.

“We call upon every person to take responsibility for their actions, as well as to be aware of the consequences of throwing away plastic material – big or small, and the long- term harm which it does to our animals and to our environment. People should reduce, re- use and recycle plastic as a way to limit waste.” The UPR NGO WG says it recognises the efforts of government to address the issue of plastic material pollution, through its introduction of the plastic levy in July 2007. It argued that however, without regular informationsharing about how much has been collected annually and how it is used, such efforts fail to effect public awareness and sustained behaviour change.

“The UPR NGO WG reiterates its calls on the government and on all communities, to continue to contribute to the management, protection of our wildlife and promotion of sustainable use of our resources.

“We call upon our government to support all efforts for and commit to the production of an internationally legally binding agreement to end plastic material pollution,” the Group said.