Students celebrate Children's Day with a clean-up drive

It was a unique Children's Day for the senior students of Model English High school in Chheda Nagar, Chembur, as they witnessed a water body clean-up drive for the first time. Members of the Chheda Nagar residents association (CWRA) organised the early morning drive with the help of BMC and invited the students of the nearby school for an interaction session with the officials.

10th standard student Apurva Menon crosses the small pond at the entrance of Chheda Nagar every day and said that it used to be very dirty. "We met the pest control officer of our locality and he spoke to us about the spread and prevention of Dengue and Malaria. We saw the larvae too," said the 15-year-old.

Dr.Vijay Sangole, member of CWRA came up with the drive. "I started preparing for it 10 days in advance. We keep hearing news about the increase in Dengue and Malaria cases in the city. There wasn't a better day than Children's Day and we spoke to the principal and arranged for the students to come witness the clean-up drive. We called the BMC for help, and they were more than happy to assist us," said Sangole, who was accompanied by his wife Sheetal, 4 more residents and BMC officials.

The clean-up began at 7 am and went on till 11 am. By the time it ended, 2 truckloads of garbage had been removed from the small pond and guppy fishes had been released in the water. Students were educated about the dangers of stagnant water.

"We are the youth and we should take the first step and make people aware about preventing deadly diseases. I have plants in my house and now, after seeing the clean-up, I will make sure I take care of stagnant water being left in the pots. It was a good Children's Day indeed," said Ankita Suresh, another student and resident of that area.