Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is Sanskrit for “One Earth, One Family, One Future” which is the theme for this year’s G20 Summit to be held in India in September 2023.
Drawing from the phrase of the Maha Upanishad, which means “The World Is One Family”, the Consul General of India in Durban, Dr Thelma John-David, summed up the purpose of the G20 Beach Clean-up held this weekend by saying: “We have one Earth, one ocean and one generation to preserve what we have and it is the efforts of all of us to make a difference.”
Dr John-David was speaking on the side-line of a beach clean-up as organised by the Consul General of India in Durban and the eThekwini Municipality. More than 850 people, including schoolchildren, participated in the beach clean-up and jointly collected over 3 000kg of marine litter at the Beachwood Mangrove’s Nature Reserve in Durban on Sunday.
The campaign was aimed at keeping beaches clean and free from plastic litter.
The clean-up initiative, called G20 Beach Clean-up, was undertaken to mark India’s G20 presidency and celebrating 30 years of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between India and South Africa. The drive in Durban is part of India’s global initiative to bring attention to the problem of marine litter, and the need to work together towards sustainable development of oceans.
Addressing marine litter is another aspect that will be an area of focus under India’s G20 presidency.
“The G20 Working Groups are working on the policy front, but policies make a difference only when each one of us makes an effort and today (Sunday) India is leading the effort across the G20 countries, our guest countries and our other partners across the world. With over 30 beaches in India also joining in, this is the people’s effort in promoting conversation across the world,” said Dr John-David.
Emphasising the importance of keeping mangroves healthy, Dr John-David said: “South Africa may have about 30 mangroves across the country, and India has the largest one. One acre of mangrove is probably 10 times more effective in fixing carbon dioxide in the world. So if we preserve one acre of mangrove across our coastal towns and cities, we make a great impact in that,” said Dr John-David.
Representing eThekwini Municipality, Head of International and Government Relations, Eric Apelgren explained that the municipality is looking at sharing knowledge with the other G20 countries.
“What we are doing with our international G20 partners is looking at how we can share best practice and learn from other countries. Not just how to put in place mitigation strategies but also how do you deal with the current crisis. For example, we are sending teams out to Germany to look at how they dealt with their water and sanitation challenges in flood conditions. With the Indian government and the G20, we really want to up our game to ensure that our environmental planning and our environmental management of the city is enhanced.”
Aplegren went on to say: “Climate change and the whole warming of the Indian Ocean has really shifted and caused much more devastation and damage through heavy downpours and uncharacteristic weather in KZN. And now we are in a situation where we have to try and do the right thing to ensure our city is protected.
“We are looking at innovative programmes. We want to send young people to India. The Indian government has already agreed to sponsor bursaries and scholarships around solar energy, wind energy and sponsoring engineers and scientist to go learn and come back to contribute to the environmental plans that we have.”
Joining in on the clean-up efforts, United States Consul General in Durban, Anne Linnee, said: “The battle to clean up our environment and oceans and keep our oceans as clean as possible is something that everyone needs to get involved in. We have a massive coastline as well, just like India and South Africa, and keeping the oceans clean, functional and part of the enormous blue economies is dependant on fisheries and healthy fish stock.
“India, South Africa and the United States have so much that they can work on together, they have so many shared industries. They are three of the largest and most productive democracies in the world and with that comes a lot of interesting conversations about democracy, about the role of community, about the role of people being able to push back on development and things like that in the environmental space. So I think, India, South Africa and the United States have tremendous opportunities to continue to partner in these spaces.”
The clean-up precedes the meeting of the 18 Heads of State and Government Summit of the Group of 20 (G20) which will take place in September 2023 in New Delhi, India.
