visakhapatnam: The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and various organisations like the Coast Guard, india Youth for Society (IYFS) and WWF-india undertook a series of cleanup drives on the beaches of Vizag on the occasion of International Coastal Clean-up Day on Saturday.
Over 3,000 Naval personnel, personnel from the Coast Guard and around 1,800 volunteers from the CISF, NCC, Andhra University and different schools and colleges participated in the drive. Around 3.25 ton of garbage was collected in the drive. Plastic and glass bottles, cigarette butts, food wrappers, bottle caps and grocery bags formed most of the collected waste. At a clean-up drive at Lawson’s Bay beach by WWF-india, around 337kg of waste was picked up.
Over 237kg of plastic, 30kg of glass and 27kg of footwear was collected. Participants cleaned various areas like the ramakrishna beach, Tenneti Park, Yarada beach, Jalaripeta, Jodugullapalem and Kalinga beach. A skit was performed to create awareness among public about the ill effects of marine pollution. “It was found that the biggest menace on the beaches is food-package material including plastic sachets and single use plastic cups, bags, wrappers.
Beaches have also become a common place for drinking liquor,” informed Y Appala Reddy, president of IYFS. Speaking at an event, rahul Pandey, chief conservator of forest, visakhapatnam, said, “we need to make a conscious effort to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics
