Versova beach in Mumbai clean, while Juhu beach full of trash

While thousands of citizens removed nearly 2 lakh kg trash from Versova beach on Sunday morning in the run up to the World Environment Day (June 5), Juhu beach, barely a few kilometres away, remained littered with more than 8,000 kg of garbage.

Paul Creado, a Juhu resident, shared pictures he took on Sunday evening of the trash that had washed ashore at the beach. “More than 8,000 kg of trash was strewn across Juhu beach on Sunday. The clearing of storm water drains and the regular beach clean-up is yet to be carried out here. This is a sight we get to see during monsoons, but this year, it has greeted us much earlier,” he said.

With India as the host for this year’s World Environment Day which is on June 5, officials from the Union environment ministry, state government and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) joined Afroz Shah, lawyer and beach clean-up crusader to remove trash from Versova beach on Sunday. Around 42 trucks full of garbage was removed between 6am and 8.30am. With this, Versova Residents Volunteers (VRV) marked their 136th beach clean-up drive since October 2015. They have so far removed 9 million kg of trash from the beach.

Union environment minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who were expected to be at the clean-up were however not present. This year’s theme for World Environment Day is ‘Beat plastic pollution’ that kick-started from the clean-up drive in Mumbai. The celebrations will be carried out across the city till May 31 and then shift to Delhi on June 4 and 5.

“There needs to be a behavioural change to address the plastic problem globally. People need to come together like they have in Versova,” said Erik Solheim, head, UNEP. “We had over 6,000 volunteers making it one of the largest clean-ups so far. A private bank will donate 42 toilets along Versova beach to curb open defecation. Two trained divers provided by the forest department have been removing plastic trash from 10 metres under the sea,” said Shah. “Trash needs to be arrested at the source,” said Godfrey Pimenta, trustee, Watchdog Foundation