2,15,000 kilos of trash from sea collected from city beaches

Mumbai: Between July 1 and July 18, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected more than 2,15,000kg of garbage from the beaches of Mumbai, with Marine Drive alone accounting for 9,000kg of the total accumulated garbage on beaches. During the monsoon season, the strong wind current over the sea leads to the washing ashore of accumulated garbage onto the city’s coasts.

Juhu beach had the highest amount of garbage, above 165 tonnes during this period. At Versova beach, around 43 tonnes of garbage from the sea was removed. Similarly, accumulation of garbage from the sea was also seen at Gorai beach, Girgaum Chowpatty and Dadar beach.

Mumbai witnessed a high tide of 4.97 metres at 1.49 pm on Sunday. On Saturday, there was a high tide of 4.96 metres at 1.02 pm. “The total garbage lifted from Marine Drive during high tide on Saturday was 12 times the garbage collected from the promenade everyday,” said a BMC official from the solid waste management department. Versova and Gorai beach, incidentally, accumulated 18 and 15 metric tonnes of garbage on the same day.   

The Marine drive promenade along the sea is located in two wards — A and C. In A ward, 20 labourers collected 4.4 metric tonnes of trash, whereas in C ward 35 labourers lifted 7.5 metric tonnes of trash along the Marine Drive. The trash was collected in the duration of almost 3.5 hours.