European University of Lefke (EUL) Faculty of Engineering Faculty Member Assist. Prof. Dr. Devrim Özdal made statements due to Environmental Protection Week.

“By the decision taken at the Environment Conference which the United Nations held in Sweden in 1972, ” World Environment Day ” June 5 was declared as ” World Environment Day ” and began to be celebrated throughout the world as the annual environmental day,” said Özdal, accordingly, in Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Although the World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th, the week covering June 5-11, which corresponds to the second week of June, has also been declared as the “Environmental Protection Week” and stated that awareness activities are organized in order to draw attention to environmental problems within this week.

Keeping the environment clean is the primary duty of all countries and each individual

The main aim of the “Environmental Protection Week” is to explain the importance of environmental protection and to raise awareness of the students, especially starting from a young age. As it is known, environmental pollution is a common problem of all countries in the world and it has reached to a level threatening human health today. When it comes to environmental pollution, air, water and soil pollution comes to mind first. A clean environment is essential for human health and well-being, ”said Özdal, and noted that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report on the prevention of diseases through a healthy environment, environmental stressors are responsible for 12% to 18% of all deaths in 53 countries in the European Region. Özdal stated that when looking at this rate, it is clearly seen how the environment affects human health and also it is known by everyone, so keeping the environment clean is the main duty of every individual of the world.

Özdal: We must act by keeping the environment clean, by alerting polluters, and by thinking about future generations.

“A clean environment means a healthy person. In general, we can say that the cause of environmental pollution is again caused by people. Therefore, we should pollute our environment less as much as we can and clean the polluted environment. So what is needed to be done for this purpose? First, environmental policies, regulations and laws should be produced by countries; Özdal said that the policies developed should be given importance and their continuity should be ensured. The condition of preparing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which examines the negative effects of a building to be made on the environment, should be included in the necessary regulations and the approval of the prepared report should be given by considering the environment fairly. Özdal said, “Apart from this it is another necessity to make the planning of the cities by thinking about the environment. When we look at the education part, it is necessary to create environmental awareness in our schools starting from the early age education period, which we call preschool, and to enable future generations to grow up as more conscious and environmentally conscious individuals by instilling the environmental awareness to children from a young age.

.Özdal: A small piece of glass that is forgotten or thrown away in nature can cause a major fire

“Apart from country policies and administrators, each citizen has duties individually. It is the main duty of every country citizen to keep the environment clean, to warn those who pollute and to act with the next generations in mind. As it is known, many forest fires have occurred in our country in the last month and unfortunately, a large area of our forests has disappeared. These again arise from people’s conscious or unconscious behaviour. Even a small piece of glass that has been forgotten or thrown in nature can cause a big fire and destroy a very large area. ” It is among our responsibilities to collect the rubbish and leave the environment cleans when we finished our work in the places we went to.

Finally, Özdal said, “Water poses a big problem in our country as in all countries of the world. The lack of sufficient water resources causes our access to clean water to be limited. At this point, our duties as individuals are; not to waste water and use enough water to meet our needs. In short, when we use water, we think not only today, but also the future and future generations, and it is important to protect our environment. Maybe, after many years, future generations will not be as lucky as we are. Therefore, everyone should be more careful, respectful and conscious about the environment as an individual. These are not only the countries or those who run the country, but also our duty as citizens, he said.