21 September: International Coastal Clean-up Day Celebrated

Every year the third Saturday of September is marked as the International Coastal Cleanup Day. This year September 21 was celebrated  as the International Coastal Cleanup Day. It encourages people to clean beaches, remove the garbage plaguing it. It has now become global with 6 million volunteers participating from 90 countries.

The theme of this year is marine animal, The Pelican.

Need for the day

There are around 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Some of them were directly dumped in to the sea, while the rest were swept into the sea from coast line. In 2018, more than 1 million volunteers removed 23 million pounds of trash from the coastline all over the world in just one day. It is essential to keep the beaches clean to protect the marine life and the ocean ecosystem.

History

It was started in 1986. It was begun by Linda Maraniss and Kathy O Hara. They worked on ocean conservancy. Around 2,800 volunteers participated in the first clean up session.

Programme in India

In India the programme was conducted in several coastal cities. It was on a large scale on the shores of Mumbai and Chennai. Chennai volunteers collected 900 kg of non – biodegradable waste and handed over to municipal authorities for proper disposal. At Chennai Besant Nagar beach the event was organized by the US Consulate General. More than 3000 volunteers participated. It also included team members from Save Turtle. At Mumbai Versova beach more than 5,000 volunteers joined the cleaning programme.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2019