Environmentalist and lawyer Afroz Shah and his band of volunteers, who along with the support of the BMC, have put in 85 weeks of hard work in the task. A total of five million kg of garbage was cleared from the beach



Pic/Hitendra Pachkale

Mumbai's Versova beach, infamous for the piles of garbage along its shore, wears a clean look now. The feat was achieved by environmentalist and lawyer Afroz Shah and his band of volunteers, who along with the support of the BMC, have put in 85 weeks of hard work in the task. A total of five million kg of garbage was cleared from the beach.

On June 5, celebrated as World Environment Day, senior officials from UN-India will join Shah and the team in the beach clean-up drive. "We are happy to see that the efforts put by all of us have helped in making the beach completely clean. Clearing 5 million kg of garbage was no mean feat. However, the challenge now is to maintain it," said Shah, who was felicitated with the Champions of Earth Award at Cancun in Mexico in December 2016 by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In the next couple of months, Shah plans to take the initiative to other beaches in Mumbai. A move he hopes will not only keep the city clean, but conserve marine animals.

The initiative was launched by Shah and his late 84-year old neighbour Harbansh Mathur in October 2015. As weeks went by, hundreds of people voluntarily participated in the initiative. The BMC also supported the cause by supplying the machinery and workers to transport the garbage that was removed from the sea and sent to the dumping ground. "After the UN tie-up, we will do the beach clean-up activity at other beaches in Mumbai. Currently, we are in the process of chalking out a plan.

There are many people, not only India, but from across the world who are approaching us as they want to replicate the same model. We will continue with the clean up even in monsoon, and would urge more people to come forward and join us," he added. There are more than 1,000-2,000 citizens who have already taken part in the initiative started by shah along with hundreds of workers associated with BMC.

The beach clean-up activity will be carried out on Saturday and Sunday where citizens will come to the beaches and pick up the plastic. Shah has also made an appeal to Mumbaikars to not throw plastic or waste into the creek or nullah.

2,000

No. of citizens who participated in the clean-up