Mumbai’s popular Juhu Beach that adds serenity to the city is choking itself. It was brought into attention by the former Miss India and actress Diya Mirza, who shared images of a massive clean-up drive by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The pictures posted on Twitter shows a truck collecting garbage from the beach, but the gigantic piles of trash were too much to fit in it. Single-use plastic bottles, drinking straws, grocery bags and much more were seen lying on the beach which are the major contributors of ocean pollution and are affecting the aquatic life immensely.
This is what the Twitter post read- “One truck is not enough to clear this garbage. #JuhuBeach Lesson for me and you? Stop using #SingleUsePlastics and tell every company that uses packaging to pick up their trash! Extended Producers Responsibility is NECESSARY.
One truck is not enough to clear this garbage. #JuhuBeach Lesson for me and you? Stop using #SingleUsePlastics and tell every company that uses packaging to pick up their trash! Extended Producers Responsibility is NECESSARY. @MCGMswm @AUThackeray @DisasterMgmtBMC #CleanSeas https://t.co/gXnEvRmna1 pic.twitter.com/N5Lim6AQPy
— Dia Mirza (@deespeak) June 23, 2019
According to BMC, in the last five days, 431 tonnes of garbage were said to be lifted from the beach and will take some days to clean it up completely. So far, the beach has been cleaned only partially.
While United Nations report mentions about 800 species across the globe are affected by marine debris and as much as 80 percent of that litter is plastic, it is estimated that up to 13 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year, which is equivalent of a garbage truck load’s worth every minute.