With a little over a week to go for World Environment Day, observed on June 5 every year, thousands of volunteers gathered at Versova beach on Sunday to rally against plastic pollution. India is the host country for the United Nations event this year.
The gathering, which included students, residents, and Central Reserve Police Force personnel, started off at 6 a.m. with a clean-up of the beach.
At one end of the beach were dignitaries, including Erik Solheim, executive director, UN Environment, Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray, actor Dia Mirza and city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam.
The spotlight, though, was on citizens at the forefront of reclaiming Mumbai’s beaches from the garbage its residents dump in the sea, such as Afroz Shah, a 33-year-old lawyer who has been spearheading the clean-up of Versova beach.
Mr. Solheim said the beach clean-up in Mumbai is among the biggest such initiatives worldwide. “What you are doing is simply amazing. Volunteers are the backbone of clean-ups. I know each one of them by face now. I can’t thank them enough for all the hard work that they put in week after week.”
Mr. Shah’s initiative is now in its 136th week, but despite the effort put in by him and the volunteers, the high tide continues to regurgitate large amounts of garbage onto the beach.
Others involved in sustained beach-cleanups, like Jai Shringarpure, Malhar Kalambe, Chintu Kwatra and Mahim couple Indranil Sengupta and Rabia Tewari, were also felicitated at the event. “When the garbage comes onto the shore, we at least get a chance to remove it instead of letting it get washed back into the sea,” Mr. Kwatra, who says he draws inspiration from Mr. Shah, said. He has been cleaning Dadar beach for some time now.
‘Mostly milk bags’
Four divers from Sindhudurg, who have been surveying pollution in the deep sea off Versova for four days, said most of the plastic waste on the sea bed is plastic bags.
Lovet Fernandes, a diver, said they have collected nearly a tractor-full of garbage. “Besides milk bags, we found cement bags, wrappers, bottles, nets and other waste filled with sand.”
He said their survey was hindered by low visibility due to the wind, low sunlight and excessive sewage in the seawater. “Fortunately, the deep sea off Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri feels better. What we’re doing to our water bodies is unacceptable.”
