Marina gets a cleaner look, thanks to volunteers

Chennai: Early Saturday morning, when most people were sleeping after a rainy night that wrapped the city in a cool blanket, throngs of volunteers crowded the Marina stretch to do their part for the city.

As part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), volunteers from various walks of life including students, corporate employees, senior citizens, NCC cadets assembled to clean a stretch from the Gandhi statue to the Pattinapakkam beach, removing garbage and debris from the beach.

Indian Maritime Foundation organises the Chennai chapter of this ICC, which is organised globally on the third Saturday of September every year.

“Our job is not just to organize the drive but to educate the people of a place about the sense of belonging. Fishing community and local people will be taught that they need to keep their surroundings clean. The vendors across the beach will be educated about not dumping their trash into the sea,” said retired Admiral KR Srinivasan, vice president of the Indian Maritime Foundation, Chennai chapter.

Mayor Sadai Duraisamy and Dr R. Nataraj, Mylapore MLA and former DGP led the cleaning drive. Last year, globally, about eight lakh volunteers collected over 81 lakh kilograms of trash. Saturday’s clean-up covered 307 km of the South and West Indian coast, comprising 58 blocks with over 7,540 dedicated volunteers. Over the next few days, nine more blocks will be cleaned.

Commodore Susindranath, president of the Navy Foundation, Chennai Chapter, appreciated the spirit and drive on keeping coasts clean and the active participation and support by NCC.

Of the total garbage collected on Saturday, 31 per cent were plastics, 26 per cent plastic containers, bottle pieces constituting 13 per cent, cigarette and beedi butts, gutka packet 10 per cent.