The Versova residents have made the almost impossible feat seem easy.
Certain Versova residents set an example on Sunday on how a lot can be achieved when like-minded people come together. Starting at 7am, around 300 of them collected a whopping 87,000 kg of garbage from Versova beach, thus ridding it of a total of 1.45 lakh kg of trash in three days.
"We had set a target of collecting 1 lakh kg of trash in three days and are glad that we crossed that figure. The community came together and we had people from all walks of life — from celebrities to local residents — who joined in and did their bit," said Bombay High Court lawyer and Versova resident Afroz Shah, the founder of Versova Resident Volunteers (VRV), an organisation that has been running a citizen-led campaign — Clean Up Versova Rock Beach.
According to Shah, VRV initiated a small drive on Thursday in which they collected around 17,500kg of trash. "On Saturday, there were fewer volunteers and we worked in three shifts, managing to collect 40,500kg of trash. But Sunday was stunning, as over 300 volunteers and over 80 BMC workers joined us with machinery, and we managed to collect 87,000kg of trash, making the beach look really clean," he said, adding that actors like Pooja Bedi and Deepak Dobriyal attended the drive throughout the day and helped clean the beach.
Dobriyal, who stays in Versova, said that since he and his friends play football on the beach, they have a habit of cleaning the portion of the beach in which they play. "It was even more fun to go out and clean a larger part of the beach, but we will have to be consistent as garbage will keep coming back. We, along with the BMC, will have to come up with long-term solutions to reduce trash from the city entering the sea, as well as create public awareness so that more people join such clean-up drives," he said.
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