Chennai: The world’s second longest beach – Marina – is ‘traditionally’ the first choice for people to spend their weekends, play and wet their feet in the soothing sea waves. However, of late, Namma Marina is experiencing deep distress.The uncontrollable rush of tourists, who give a damn for environs, is bringing along tonnes of garbage and the simmering heat of summer is driving away the workers who have been employed to pick up these piles of garbage and keep Marina clean.
Though corporation of Chennai is putting its best foot forward to save Namma Marina from filling with filth, things are just not falling in place. According to rough estimates, this weekend alone (Friday evening to Sunday evening) saw over 2.5 lakh people descending on the 3-km coastline of Marina beach dumping nearly 9-10 tonnes of garbage, including broken beer bottles and non-degradable plastic waste.
How do we clean this stuff? The corporation, which failed to resolve the issue all these years, has outsourced the job to Shuddha, an NGO, in November last year. It managed to do a fair job till March, but as the holiday season began and summer set in, it all went haywire. Nisha Thota, general secretary, Shuddha, told DC that as long as people don't own-up responsibility, it's near impossible to keep Marina clean. “Now, the biggest challenge is to beat the heat and ensure workers attend duty. The corporation has given us sanction for 128 workers, but hardly 60 attend. They are refusing to step on the sand for fear of burning their feet. April-May is the peak tourist season and Marina is literally turning into a dump yard. With fewer workers, it is becoming hard to manage.”
The garbage is collected in two shifts — 7 am to 10 am and 10 pm to midnight. Women working in night shift are being harassed by men mistaking them for sex workers. “This has become another challenge. There are a lot of sex workers and transgender movement at night making Marina unsafe. The police have to take note of this and do something about it,” said Nisha. Besides, the three sand cleaning machines, each equivalent to 32 workers, purchased by the corporation in 2013, are under repair. “I am really handicapped without these machines.
They developed problems in March and are lying idle with no one to attend to them. I have requested the corporation to get them repaired.” On Sunday, Mrudula Devi, a tourist from Andhra Pradesh, complained that a broken glass caused a deep leg injury to her daughter while playing in the sand. “I don't feel like coming again. Water is so dirty and the vendors just don't allow you to spend time quietly,” she said.
