Kovalam: Responsible Tourism plans Facebook campaign against plastic

Thiruvananthapuram: The Responsible Tourism wing of the Tourism Department will soon begin a Facebook campaign against bottled water, as the first step towards imposing total plastic bottle ban in Kovalam.

Along with the campaign, the RT wing will conduct a survey to assess the quantity of plastic bottles that are dumped in the beach daily. The Facebook campaign is inspired by a similar successful campaign launched in San Francisco, the hilly city in north California. San Francisco, following the campaign in 2014, had become the first city in the world to ban bottled water.

Increasing plastic waste is seen as one of the main reasons why Kovalam is losing its status as a marquee tourism destination. If at all proof was required, one only has to look at the rotten stray dog carcasses scattered all around the beach; the entrails are mixed with chewed plastic.

“The destination calls itself responsible but allows travelers to dump plastic waste with impunity. No serious attempts have been made to dissuade travelers from dumping plastic waste,” said Mathai John who runs ‘Sea Delights’ restaurant in Kovalam.

Kovalam had in fact tried to get rid of plastic waste earlier. A biogas project in association with Suchithwa Mission had employed rag pickers to collect plastic waste and deposit it at the biogas plant. The project fell through after the Mission failed to pay the suppliers.

“Unlike a controlled destination like Kumarakom, an open destination like Kovalam can make a success of the plastic ban only if the travelers and tourists are first properly educated,” the RT source said. The FB campaign is expected to partially achieve this objective.

Distributing water in tetrapacks is one proposal that is seriously explored by the Tourism Department. Like in Kumarakom, there are also plans to start a plastic shredder unit in Kovalam.