The Hindu 18.01.2010
100 tonnes of garbage cleared from beaches
Aloysius Xavier Lopez
| Workers sweat it out a day after ‘Kaanum Pongal’ |
— Photo: R. Ragu 
SAD SIGHT: A view of the Marina after the ‘Kaanum Pongal’ celebrations on Saturday.
CHENNAI: People who visited the beaches of Chennai on Saturday to celebrate ‘Kaanum Pongal’ left more than 100 tonnes of garbage on the sands.
Conservancy workers found it tough to cope with the piling up of garbage and keep the beach clean on Saturday as visitors kept littering the area. More than 125 conservancy workers of the Chennai Corporation and Neel Metal Fanalca worked the whole night to clean the beaches, including Marina and Elliots, as the number of visitors increased considerably, according to officials.
P. Jyothi Raj, one of the workers said, “Even as we were removing garbage people were continuing to litter the beach. We had to work from the evening of ‘Kaanum Pongal’ till 4 a.m. on Sunday to clean the area under the guidance of officials.” People continued their celebrations till midnight and continued to throw plastic bottles, spoons and polythene bags, he said.
Cleaning of the beach would have been easier if more people had used the waste bins, said Mr. Raj.
Around 15 compactor bins and 25 collection bins were used to collect waste but people were reluctant to use the bins for disposal of waste, said an official.
Most people seemed to have forgotten the ban on plastics on the Marina and more than three tonnes of plastic waste was collected on Saturday, he added.
The collection of plastic waste in Elliots Beach was lesser when compared to that of last year and there was an increase in collection from the Marina Beach.
Transportation of waste to collection centres was also a challenge, said S. Balakrishnan, a driver of the waste collecting vehicle of Neel Metal Fanalca.
During normal days, the frequency of operating the vehicle is two hours per load of garbage. But, during ‘Kaanum Pongal’ this year a load of garbage was transported in 30 minutes and there were three helpers per vehicle. Usually only one helper is available for a vehicle during normal days.
