PRAN-RFL and UNDP to work together to protect Saint Martin’s Island

PRAN-RFL, the country's leading business conglomerate, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will work together to protect Saint Martin's, Bangladesh's lone coral island.

The two organisations have jointly undertaken the 'Saint Martin's: Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Economy' initiative. Mohammed Solaiman Haider, Director of the Department of the Environment, inaugurated the initiative on Saint Martin's Island on Monday.

Under this initiative, waste will be collected, and the collected waste will be recycled later. Apart from this, the standard of life of the island's people will be improved; employment will be created, and the entrepreneurs will get support in marketing their products. Moreover, there will be an arrangement of pure drinking water for the people living on the island, various programs to create public awareness, and tree plantation programmes to protect the environment.

Addressing the program as chief guest, Mohammed Solaiman Haider said that the environment and biodiversity of Saint Martin's Island are threatened due to uncontrolled movement of tourists, construction of unplanned structures and environmental pollution. The current interim government has taken various steps to protect the island. The joint initiative of PRAN-RFL and UNDP to protect the environment is highly commendable. Only through the combined efforts can Saint Martin's Island be saved.

Kamruzzaman Kamal, Marketing Director at PRAN-RFL Group, said, "PRAN-RFL has been implementing various programs as part of environmental protection and business activities for a long time. The group has a platform called 'Let's Save the Planet' for this. The platform is working to sustain livelihoods, businesses, and economic activities through environmental protection."

He also said, "We have taken this initiative with UNDP to help protect the blue economy, preserve the environment and ensure a sustainable island economy. Under this initiative, volunteers of the PRAN-RFL Group will collect waste from the Island and bring it to designated dumping stations. The wastes are compressed by machines and brought to Teknaf by sea. It will then be brought to the recycling plant at Habiganj Industrial Park and Danga Industrial Park of PRAN-RFL Group through its transport and recycled there."

Kamruzzaman Kamal said to provide economic security to the island's fishermen, their collected marine fish and dried fish will be collected and sold in a corner called Saint Martin Exclusive in the retail chain shop of PRAN-RFL Group.

To protect the environment, rainwater harvesting will provide pure drinking water for the island's people, and tree plantation programs will be conducted in different parts of the island.

Dr. Ramiz Uddin, Head of Experimentation at UNDP, said, "UNDP is always working to ensure a sustainable environment. At first, UNDP collected plastic waste on the island, but the work accelerated with the addition of the PRAN-RFL group. For this, UNDP sincerely thanks the PRAN-RFL group. We hope that the group will play a greater role in improving the quality of life of the island's people."

Before the inauguration, a beach cleaning campaign was held to create awareness among the island's people and tourists about preventing environmental pollution. On Monday morning, five hundred people from various walks of life and tourists participated in this event in collaboration with PRAN-RFL Group and My Saint Martin.

Participants clean up beach litter from Saint Martin's docks to the island's West Beach. They also organised rallies and distributed leaflets to raise awareness about the problem of plastic pollution.

Speakers at the beach cleaning ceremony said that to protect the environment of Saint Martin's Island, there is no alternative to reducing waste generation, dumping waste in specific places, regular waste collection, and waste separation and processing. For this, the 'zero-waste' concept must be implemented by strengthening and improving the existing waste management.

Nurul Afser, Head of Corporate Brand of PRAN-RFL Group; Sumaiya Tabassum Ahmed, Head of Sustainability; Ahammad Ullah Kabir, Data Analytics Officer of UNDP; representatives of My Saint Martin; and local dignitaries were present at the programme.