How Removal Of 7.4 Million Kilograms Of Garbage Made Versova The Cleanest Beach Of Mumbai
A cleanup drive that started two years ago as a personal initiative of Afroz Shah and his neighbour, Harbansh Mathur, soon became the world's biggest and longest cleanup drive. It has successfully completed 100 weeks of continuous cleanup, with the cleaning of 7.4 million kilos of garbage. Inspired by the efforts of these two individuals, residents, school students, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation labourers, Bollywood celebrities and UN officials also joined hands and supported them. Here are some pictures of how Versova turned into the cleanest beach of Mumbai.
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Soon, Versova cleanup drive started catching attention and despite being busy with their personal and professional life, Mumbaikars from all walks of life started joining in. With every cleanup week organised on Saturday, one could see more and more people joining in and doing their bit.
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During Mumbai's biggest festival - Ganesh Chaturthi, Afroz Shah guarded Versova along with 200 volunteers every day and night. Post Ganpati immersion, a mega-cleanathon marking 99 week cleanup at Versova was organised. With the help of 900 people approximately 80,000 kilos of waste and 7,400 Ganesh Idols were removed from the beach.
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Instead of dumping the waste at some other place to create another heap of garbage, trash collected during clean up drive is directly dumped into tractors and sent to a recycling house in Mumbai. Like the waste collected during Ganpati immersion, Ganpati idols were sent for recycling while flowers and other wet waste were being composed into manure.
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By 100th week, what started off as a two-person cleanup drive was transformed into a people's movement. As of now, 7.4 million kilos of trash have been removed. Versova beach cleanup drive is a testimony of what people power can achieve. All it takes is someone to take that initiative.
