World Environment Day Special: In A First, Divers Join The Versova Beach Clean-Up

New Delhi: The world’s biggest and largest beach clean-up movement has hit another crescendo. For the first time, trained divers descended 15 to 20 metres deep into the water – about half a kilometre from the beach – to collect garbage. Aim: to understand water pollution at the seabed near Versova. The divers have been roped in to participate in the clean-up from May 25 to May 27, for the World Environment Day celebrations for which India is the host country, environmentalist Afroz Shah told NDTV, speaking about this first-of-its-kind attempt.

For the first time, divers are being sent into the water to collect garbage and plastic debris. This is the first time in India and Mumbai such an inititive has been taken. It is very important for each one of us, this will tell us what type of water pollution we all are dealing with.

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Sharing the statistics of how much waste has been collected by the divers, Mr Shah said,

The divers came back with a lot of plastic garbage – from plastic packets to PET bottles, there is a lot of plastic that is polluting our oceans. The divers collected around 70 kilograms of waste the first day.

Giving glimpses of the historic event to netizens on Friday, Mr Shah said in a post on social media

Cleaning the beaches then dive into the ocean. Divers provided by @MangrovesMumbai and equipment by @CocaCola_Ind – First historic dive in Mumbai to clean the belly of the ocean. No stones left unturned. Ocean, please wait we will survive together.

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View Afroz Shah’s Post

Till date, around 15 million kilograms of plastic and waste has already been removed from Versova beach, courtesy Afroz Shah, who has been spearheading the Versova beach clean-up since October 2015. Apart from the regular clean-ups, Mr Shah has been creating awareness about marine pollution and the need to ditch plastic from everyday life. From training the people living near the ocean about plastic waste management after the clean-ups to going to schools and colleges to invite more and more people to join him in the fight against plastic, Mr Shah has done it all. Getting the divers involved in the clean-up is one of the latest initiatives by Mr Shah. He signed off by saying,

This will help authorities to frame a better action plan to beat plastic pollution effectively. I will do my best to help them out as this is everyone’s fight.

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