PANJIM: Goa’s internationally-acclaimed beaches, that annually attract millions of domestic and foreign visitors, are dominated by beach debris and plastic litter. The State has the highest quantity of debris and plastic amongst all coastal States in the country.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and Society of Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM) in a study conducted on beach litter in the coastal states of India showed that with 205.75 g/m2 the Goa coast has the highest quantity of beach debris and so also plastic at 25.47g/m2.
The report titled Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) – Volume I for the proposed Enhancing Coastal and Ocean Resource Efficiency (ENCORE) Project has been prepared after incorporating comments and suggestions of people, stakeholders on the draft ESMF disclosed on June 7, 2019.
“Coastal litters impact in multiple ways, most importantly they degrade the quality and health of our ocean, damage coastal and marine habitats and harm marine biota,” the reported stated. “Plastic enters into the coastal and marine ecosystem either directly by illegal dumping or accidental loss of debris during fishing, cargo operations and oil rings or indirectly by the way of wind, rivers, streams, and storm drains,” it added.
Plastic litter such as single-use carry bags and sachets of soft drinks, edible oils, detergents, beverages, cases of cosmetics, toothpaste, PET bottles, ice cream containers, etc, recorded the highest mean of 25.47g/m2 from the Goa coast. Odisha has the lowest beach debris as well as plastic litter.
The ENCORE Project aims to strengthen integrated coastal zone management in all coastal States with improved capacity for decentralised coastal management, improved protection and pollution abatement in coastal areas and project management, monitoring, and evaluation.
