The Eastern Cape government this week celebrated World Ozone Day with the communities and learners within the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, at Eco Park in the Eastern Cape.

World Ozone Day is a product of the Montreal Protocol Convention under the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), seeking to protect the ozone layer by phasing out ozone depleting substances.

This year World Ozone Day celebrations took place under the theme, “Ozone Layer Protection: The Mission Goes On.”

The Montreal Protocol has so far been successful in meeting some of its targets in phasing out ozone-depleting substances. As a result, the ozone layer is expected to recover around the middle of this century.

There are, however, some remaining challenges in the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances. This year’s theme seeks to galvanize all stakeholders and parties to the protocol/governments to increase their efforts to address the challenges.

 

Cleanup campaign

At the same time, there was also a cleanup campaign hosted by the Buffalo City Municipality in partnership with the Provincial and National Departments of Environmental Affairs. This was to bring awareness and encourage communities to live in clean environment.

The main event was a competition between five high schools from Mdantsane. The schools presented items whose purpose was to raise awareness on Ozone layer issues and what individuals and communities can do to protect the Ozone layer.