After Mandrem beach now it’s the turn of Mandrem village. Foreigners who are presently on a visit to the famous Mandrem beach in Pernem Taluka have taken up an initiative to clean the Mandrem village. With the garbage littered about and locals not taking up any steps to keep the environment clean, it is this group of around 30 to 40 foreign tourists who have come together to clean up the rubbish.
Headed by one Canadian national Rebecca, this group comprising tourists on holiday on Mandrem beach take 2 to 3 hours from their schedule and dedicate it to cleaning the beach side areas to streets of the village and roads.
The number of volunteers keep fluctuating however the foreigners participate in one or two big cleanliness drives. They collect all types of plastic bags, bottles, can and all other types of garbage littered all around. They cleaned up a ward called Junaswada in Mandrem along with road going Mandrem College, the Mandrem market and some parts of Ashwem.
These tourist happily participate in the one or two cleanliness drives and also enjoy their holidays in Mandrem.
The organiser Rebbeca Andrist schedules the drive and time and date and with the help of facebook informs interested people. They further collect the garbage and hands it over to the local Mandrem panchayat. No local Panch members has ever participated in these cleanliness drives.
Meanwhile the local participation is these drives is quite disappointing since hardly anyone participates and their initiative extends to providing the brooms.
Talking to Herald, Rebecca said,” For the past 10 years we were cleaning the beach but now the beach is being cleaned by Dhrishti. Now since the beach is already cleaned, we have focused on internal village and road. Foreign tourists who are on their holidays in Mandrem are happy to do one or two major clean up. However its tricky to get many people to do this work”.
“When we approach the local people here they give a positive response but physical they don’t participate in the drive. There is need to take up this initiative at government level. Government should impose fine to the people who litter. Also there is need for more campaigns and awareness programs in schools. We really need to get into the schools and start educating students. Awareness is needed from grassroots level to Government level. We cannot keep on dumping everything anywhere,” Rebecca said.
“This is not something that we can do all the time. We are doing this drives in big groups to inspire the people at if we get together than within time of 2 to 3 hours they can make a change. We are in holidays and we want to enjoy. Mandrem is a beautifulplace with beach, palm trees and more. But people keep on dumping with no intension of cleaning. This drives will help us to inspire the local people and Government ofGoa to take up cleanliness at Government level”. Rebecca said.
Rebecca Andrist is a Canadian national who spends four months of her holidays in Mandrem every year. From past 12 years she has been visiting Mandrem and has taken up several cleanliness rubbish drives on Mandrem beach for almost 10 years.
