Held on February 5, the Car Free Day 2017 helped donating around DH200,000 to support poor and needy and for planting trees. Hussain Nasser Lootah, the Director General of Dubai Municipality donated the money to deserving organizations like Dar Al Ber Society, Bait Al Khair Society, Dubai club for the disabled and Emirates Down Syndrome Association.
The residents of Dubai enthusiastically participated in the eighth edition of Car Free Day 2017. They left their cars at home and used public transport to reach their destination. People from major Government departments and private firms took part in the event to reduce carbon emissions. Some people took metro, others used buses and a few went for cycling to take part in this important environment awareness day.
Lootah told Gulf News about the purpose of celebrating Car Free Day. He said going car free even for a day means reducing tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon production can be balanced with planting trees and each planted tree is equal to money. The money that will be donated to charities will be calculated as per the reduction in carbon emission.
Car Free Day makes people more conscious of the harmful effects of pollution and implies the significance of growing trees, thereby producing more responsible citizens and a pollution free environment.