New Delhi: Thousands of volunteers from across the country on Saturday (September 21) contributed to make the International Coastal Clean-up Day a success in India and send a message against single-use plastic. The Coastal Clean-up Day is a global social action program which is celebrated with an aim to combat the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris. It is celebrated by doing litter clean-up and waste mapping activities spanning every time zone. People around the country actively participated in the cleaning drives conducted in various cities.
Odisha
A massive beach clean-up drive was organised in Odisha to mark the International Coastal Clean-up Day. The students also joined in large numbers to clean beaches near Konark and Astarang area along the coastline across the district.
The clean-up was a part of ‘Mo Beach’ cleaning programme, introduced by the district administration, to carry out beach clean-ups around the city. The word ‘Mo’ in Oriya means ‘my’ and this campaign was started to make the shoreline clean and beautiful. On a closer look, Puri district has around seven enchanting beaches, including the shore in the town. The beaches that mostly attract tourists are Baliharchandi, Rajhans, Astaranga and Ramchandi.
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Moreover, in order to make this campaign a success, the district administration roped in famous sand sculptor Sudarshan Pattnaik as the brand ambassador of ‘Mo Beach’ cleaning campaign. Mr. Pattnaik on September 19 made a few feet long sand sculpture depicting a broom and a bucket. He also urged the masses through his art to join the campaign by inscribing a slogan at the bottom ‘Join MoBeach Puri on 21st September.’
Chennai
People from Chennai gathered at the Edward Elliot’s Beach to participate in the clean-up drive on the occasion. Scores of volunteers, including Indian coastal guards, school children, government officials, teachers together cleaned the heaps of trash to preserve the beach for the future generation and boost tourism.
Today, we are celebrating International coastal cleanup day and this entire week we will carry out a cleanliness drive. Indian Coastal guards also participated in the event and also directed the volunteers about the clean-up drive. Students and teachers have also come out in large numbers to take part in the event, said Shreevats Sanjay, Deputy Director, Indian Tourism Chennai.
“We are trying to preserve the beach for the future generation and also to boost tourism by making it plastic-free,” he added.
Delhi
To preserve the river Yamuna, a tributary of the holy river Ganga, a cleaning exercise at Kalindi Kunj ghat in New Delhi was organised under the Namami Gange program by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
The NMCG has been regularly conducting cleaning exercise for Ganga and its tributaries. The government’s endeavour is to connect more people with its flagship project of Namami Gange. NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra told ANI about the efforts undertaken by the authority to connect maximum people with the program. He said that members of NMCG often come to Kalindi Kunj to clean the Ghat.
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The government’s endeavour is to connect more people with its flagship project of Namami Gange. NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra told ANI about the efforts undertaken by the authority to connect maximum people with the program. He said that members of NMCG often come to Kalindi Kunj to clean the Ghat.
Mr. Mishra is of the view that it is important for people to come together in order to keep rivers and cities clean. Following Namami’s Gange’s initiative, many other NGOs have also started working for the cause.
He asserted that NMCG is trying to associate with schools and Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the societies with the cleaning drive. It had started from Kalindi Kunj ghat last year and gradually expanded to other ghats too.
As India is set to bid final goodbye to single-use plastics on 2nd October, the NMCG also plans to carry out extensive river cleaning drive in New Delhi on the same day to create mass awareness about Namami Gange project among the residents of New Delhi and around,m he said.
During the drive, the participants will clean Yamuna Ghats in the national capital.
On 2nd October, NMCG and the Jal Shakti Ministry will try to bring all the organizations together for our cleaning drive. Meanwhile, NMCG will also try to establish connections with the residents of Delhi so that everyone would come together at Yamuna ghats for our massive cleaning drive, said Mr. Mishra.
Also Read: Delhi Contributes 79 Per Cent To Yamuna Pollution, Haryana Tells Delhi High Court
Kerala
On the International coastal clean-up day, an environmental organisation, ‘Thanal’ in Trivandrum conducted a programme called ‘Plastic Taskforce’. The cleanup drive was carried out at a beach in Trivandrum.
Programme Co-ordinator, Shibu told ANI,
This drive is to generate awareness among the local community on plastic pollution. This programme is in connection with the International Coastal Cleanup Day. Plastic has become a global concern and now this is being discussed for economic reasons because many large industries are dependent on the resources of the ocean. Their products are getting contaminated with plastic, he highlighted.
Talking about the single-use plastic, the co-ordinator said,
There is a growing dissent against plastic pollution around the globe. The real challenge is to get rid of the single-use plastic. More than 60 per cent of the products in the market are single-use plastic and is ending up at environmentally sensitive areas and also affecting the local livelihood.
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Thanal is one of the prominent organisations of Kerala and the programme name is ‘Plastic Taskforce’. Volunteers have come up from multiple districts to participate in the programme, Shibu added.
A volunteer, Akhila said,
We have come here to participate in the programme. We have segregated the papers, plastic and other kinds of packets from each other. We are going to carry this out in other places as well.
Goa
Over 1,000 kg of plastic waste has been found at a beach stretch near Panaji by a team of scientists and students of the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), an official said on Monday. During a campaign as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day 2019 last Saturday, the NIO team collected garbage from the Caranzalem beach for two-and-a-half hours and found that the area was littered with various plastic material.
The waste collected from around one-km-long stretch of the beach included 1,078 kg of plastics, 486 kg of organic waste including paper and other trash, 720 glass bottles and125 metal cans, a spokesperson of the NIO said.
The trash consisted of plastics used for food and other packagings, plastic caps, spoons, cups, glasses, straws, pens, bags, toys and decorative items, fishing net pieces and tarpaulin sheets, he said.
Our addiction to single-use plastic and lack of its waste management has resulted in a global epidemic of plastic pollution, he said.
The garbage was later handed over to the Corporation of City of Panaji for further processing, he said. The international coastal clean-up campaign began over30 years ago and since then, plastic consumption has gone up, the spokesperson said.
We know plastic has a negative impact and we know where it is coming from. We need to prevent this pollution, and more importantly, cut it off at the source, he added.
The NIO, a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), undertook the drive in association with the National Centre for Coastal Research and the Ministry of Earth Sciences. Over 130 staff members and students participated in the drive, led by NIO’s Director Sunil Kumar Singh and senior scientists Mahua Saha and Rakesh Sharma.
With inputs from agencies.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
