In October of 2015, Versova beach was a little more of a dumping ground on the west coast of Mumbai, India. Specifically there were five and a half feet of plastic across the beach. After what the UN called the world’s largest beach clean up, this is Versova beach today!
What started off as an one man’s clean up mission turned into the world’s largest beach cleanup initiative. Indeed, the beach clean up movement started by Afroz Shah, a lawyer by profession and environmentalist who loves ocean. Afroz Shah decided to take matters into his own hands and proceed to this three-year effort to clean up Mumbai’s (once) incredibly dirty Versova Beach.
When you see so much plastic juxtaposed to the ocean, it is scary, it is very scary…
Afroz Shah
Afroz started picking up the trash himself and, later on, he provoked others to join in. Eventually more than 1,000 volunteers did joined him. Since 2015, every weekend, hundreds of volunteers joined Afroz to pick up the 9.000 tons of trash and plastic from the 2.5 kilometer stretch of beach. The process lasted over a period of 21 months and keeps going.
It is of great importance that a movement which started by just one person was finally supported by a great amount of people including local Versova residents, slum-dwellers, politicians, Bollywood celebrities and schoolchildren, proving that individuals can change the world.
A recent tweet on Afroz’s Twitter account states that a dolphin washed ashore at Versova Beach describing it as a very painful experience. While, on week 127 of the beach cleaning up, it was reported that Olive Ridley Sea Turtles returned to the beach, after two decades of absence, proving that constant cleaning helps marine species. This was a historic moment at Versova beach; volunteers facilitated their journey to ocean.
Beach cleaning is undoubtedly one of the biggest preventive actions. The UN recognized Shah’s volunteer work. In 2016 the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) awarded him the Champion of the Earth award for his his efforts in launching the world’s largest beach clean-up in Mumbai.
According to the UNEP, 13 million tons of plastic waste finds its way to the world’s oceans every year. SAFETY4SEA has released a series blog posts on plastic marine debris and micorplastics aiming to present a major problem of our days; how plastics, which are part of our daily life, are at the same time a big part of our waste stream.
Watch the story of Mumbai beach dramatic makeover
