Rains bring back garbage to coast

From Marina to Besant Nagar, Kovalam and even Mamallapuram, beaches across Chennai have seen a huge amount of waste being washed ashore, after the recent rains. Bottle caps, food sachets, water packets and Styrofoam constituted a large part of the trash. According to official statistics, the city generates 4500 MT of garbage every single day, a huge portion of which finds its way into the water bodies. 

While some amount of garbage getting washed back to shore by the waves is not uncommon, envi-ronmentalists are alarmed at the sheer quantity of waste that was thrown back on the shores in the last 24-48 hours. 

When contacted, corporation officials did not want to comment but admitted that the amount of garbage was indeed more than normal. An official who did not want to be named said he only learnt about the seriousness of the matter from the media 

Though an official estimate has not been done, Showkath Jamal, co-founder of the Bay of Life surf school and an ocean activist, said the level of trash that has washed ashore this year is unusually high. “The level of garbage washed on the beach is quite high. One of the main reasons for this could be the garbage, which is dumped into our rivers and lakes. Kovalam now looks like a landfill with mounds of garbage washed ashore,” he said. Writer and activist Nityanand Jayaraman said, “The answer to this problem is how to get sambar delivered from the restaurant to your home, in a container that is reliable, can be reused, recycled, burnt, buried or composted, without causing harm to the environment. If a material cannot do that, it should not be produced.” 

Arun Krishnamurthy, Founder of Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI), said, “In a month, the mating season of the Olive Ridley sea turtles will start. If the beaches are full of trash, it will result in lesser eggs being laid and dwindling population of this species. If we don’t act, we may have an ecological disaster on our hands,” he cautioned.