More than 100 countries and regions in the world are set to participate in the 10th "Clean UP the World" campaign, scheduled to take place from today to Sunday.

Over the next three days clean-up activities will be staged around the nation and people are encouraged to participate.

Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing and Chongqing will take the lead, said Hao Shengkun, president of China Association of Urban Environmental Sanitation.

The global activity originated in Australia 12 years ago when Ian Kiernan, an ordinary Australian builder and solo yachtsman, had a simple idea to make a difference in his own backyard - Sydney Harbour.

This simple idea has now become the nation's largest community-based environmental event: Clean Up Australia Day.

With the support of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Clean Up the World was launched in 1993.

More than 37.5 million people from 128 countries took part last year, demonstrating that the simple Australian idea has universal appeal and the health of the environment is of concern to people and communities worldwide.

"The problem of waste management and the need for waste and resource reduction are common to communities the world over," said Lu Yingfang, an official from the Ministry of Construction.

Lu said the clean-up campaign is one of the simplest yet most effective means of tackling these issues and at the same time helps raise awareness of the values of the natural world.

This year China is launching activities with the theme of "Clean our city and love our motherland." The global theme for this year is: Think Globally, Act Locally.

Statistics from 10 major cities indicted that almost 2 million people including students and employees of enterprises helped clean up more than 35,000 sites last year.

(China Daily September 20, 2002)