The war on beach garbage has begun
The genesis of Herald’s decision to pick an issue to run with was really very simple. We picked the lowest hanging fruit, the easiest to reach out for and the simplest issue for people to consume, or so we thought- garbage, or more precisely beach garbage. The issue struck a chord because it’s so in your face and no matter how many campaigns are done across media platforms, the sight of garbage burnt on the beach, clogging water pipelines and choking rivers and nullahs, makes every effort to address it worth it.
However we ran into an unforeseen stumbling block and it wasn’t garbage. The stumbling block was passing the onus of taking the North Goa beach belt, out of the mess- literally to someone else. The restaurant owners blame the panchayat, the panchayat blames the tourism department, the tourism department on the other hand feels that real stakeholders- the people of Goa are a part of the problem, and hence should be a part of the solution.
As the blame hat goes round, a queer version of “necessity being the mother of invention” is played out each day. It begins with an office goer going to work carrying a mini weapon of mass destruction, a garbage bag, an ubiquitous object that is flung across a field, into a drain or from top of the Nerul bridge into the river. The landscape of Baga, Candolim and Nerul is infested with the remnants of such weapons. This garbage has no clear resting place, no room for treatment and when it has to go from the beaches to make way for people to walk, it’s burnt.
This campaign “The war on beach garbage” aims to sensitise and bring together every stage holder from a babu to a bin cleaner, it aims to make the panchayat, the tourism department, restaurants, hotels, housing societies see it as a collective problem for which collective solutions are sought. The beach cannot be a preserve of the tourism department alone, with the onus placed squarely on them, expecting them to perform miracles.
Unfortunately sensitization will not happen through mere awareness creation, it will have to be mixed with wraps on knuckles for which all stakeholders will have to come into play. The panchayat needs to impose fines along with what other departments do, on restaurants that do not segregate, citizens groups should report tourists or locals who throw garbage on the beach and other areas, and the tourism department should be armed with powers to initiate penal action through the police or the pollution control board on those who burn garbage.
It is important that action and monitoring committees consisting of stakeholders from all these touch points work together rather than get into an isolated blame game.
Obviously there is an action plan in place started by the tourism department. This includes placing of bins, starting a sorting and segregation system, having composting pits throughout the belt, ensuring carriage of garbage after daily clearance to sorting and dumping centers and sending the plastic to recycling centers.
This department has a lot to answer for not doing this quickly enough, but this isn’t a new virus that has consumed the health of the beaches. It is a natural affliction where increasing footfalls lead to pressure on land and resources but unfortunately puts no pressure on the beneficiaries of tourism to clean up.
Lastly, Herald’s campaign is not to fix blame but work towards solutions. But we have absolutely no choice but to bring pictures and stories of the ground situation so that no one lives in denial. We want all of us to be embarrassed and hang our heads in shame, so that there is no other way but to look up and join this campaign.
