Mumbai | Oct 02, 2016: This is a fantastic engagement by residents. Please look into what you can do at the political level to help them... This was my message to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,'' said United Nations chief of environment Erik Solheim here on Sunday, about the Versova beach clean-up. Solheim had specially flown from Paris to join Versova Resident Volunteers on its first anniversary of cleaning up the suburban beach stretch, which till a year ago had only a high heap of plastic trash and no sand visible.
"Hope the government does something to take this tremendous initiative ahead," said Solheim, who added that he had "never seen such a horrendous sight."
Solheim, in an exclusive chat with TOI, his hands still with yellow rubber gloves, following his hour-long clean-up, where he too picked up bags full of plastic litter, said he was delighted with the "two landmark'' events of the day. "India has taken a huge step forward on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday by signing the Paris Climate agreement The Paris deal represents a tremendous opportunity for India and the world, it will help generate clean power, create more climate-friendly job opportunities."
He said, "The beach initiative started by a young advocate, Afroz Shah, is a fantastic citizens' initiative and the biggest and best plastic clean-up in history. It is an inspiration for residents across the world to emulate."
"There is also a very strong message to political leaders in Delhi and Maharashtra to find ways to regulate the plastic market and recyclable disposal of plastic, as cleaning up litter every month will be very tiresome,'' he said. While a citizens' initiative is fantastic, it needs a regulatory mechanism to back it, he added. "I will do my utmost to promote this effort. At the UN Environment, we can tell people about this astonishing news from Mumbai. Maybe we can replicate this in Africa or China, or Europe or wherever. We can work with industries to find better alternatives to plastic. We can get governments to bring in laws to ban plastic bags. France has regulated the market recently. A number of nations are stepping up," he said.
"The rainy day beach, littered with plastic and other debris washed ashore, saw over 1,300 volunteers, including US consul-general Thomas Vajda, his deputy Jennifer Larson, actors Pooja Bhatt, school kids such as Rudra Mundergi, college students, business persons, lawyers, doctors, regulars like Mona, Aman and Amir Keshwani, Naresh Suri, Amit Survase and Indian Idol winner Meiyang Chang picking and tugging away at embedded trash, unmindful of the rain. They cleared 28 truckloads of garbage in a few hours. Celebrity Versova resident Pooja Bedi could not make it due to prior commitments.
Vajda, who had come with his family, later tweeted, "The Versova beach clean-up is a great example of people coming together to clean up the local environment. We are honoured to join them.''
The initiative which began last October with Shah and his octogenarian building buddy in Versova, to clean the beach with their bare hands, now has over 200 regular volunteers and has cleared over 3 million kg of plastic and other litter from the suburban beach strip, allowing the sand to be visible again.
Shah said, "We will fight till our oceans are cleaned. Marine litter cannot be countenanced. We have to guard our beaches. There should be more focus on it. The Versova Resident Volunteers (VRV) also helped forge bonds of friendship among environment lovers. Friends bond over garbage pick-up.'' He added, " My friends tell me that picking up garbage has become fashionable now.''
Shah said that while Solheim travelled thousands of miles to support the clean-up, "we are waiting for a leader in India who says he wants to don the gloves..." He invited acting legend Amitabh Bachchan to don the gloves too and come to the beach too, and he agreed.
Chang tweeted, "From singing in the rain last night to cleaning Versova beach in the rain today, volunteers tripled, beach so clean, kudos Afroz Shah."
Solheim urged to take up sand-mining issue on priority
At a meeting of environmental groups and activists including, Debi Goenka and Vanshakti with Erik Solheim, Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz Foundation requested the UN to take up the issue of sand-mining as a priority.
"Sand mining is an international environmental problem as over 70% of the world's beaches are disappearing. India has begun to import sand to meet its requirements for development and recently proposed cosmetic projects such as beach nourishment plans for some Mumbai beaches which will require large recurring quantities of high quality sand every few years," she said.
"The government should make a recirculating system and the business of recycling feasible. Climate is not a burden but an opportunity to improve... let us be inspired by Gandhi's birthday to take a better step forward," said Solheim.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)