Community groups tackle India's piles of garbage

(30 Aug 2017) LEADIN: In some parts of India mountains of garbage are becoming a real problem. Community groups are beginning to spread awareness about the garbage amassing in public spaces. They are organising clean-up teams to help reclaim the country's garbage-strewn streets, parks and beaches. STORYLINE: Welcome to Mumbai's Versova beach - a symbol of India's growing waste problem. Government estimates suggest that each of India's 1.3 billion citizens generates roughly 0.2 to 0.6 kilograms (approximately 0.44 to 1.3 pounds) per day. Waterways across the country are choked by the mounting rubbish - a collection of discarded plastic bags, bottles, clothes and wrappers. But many people have had enough. For the past two years, Mumbai based lawyer Afroz Shah has spent every weekend cleaning Versova beach, yet every time he does there's still plenty more to pick up. He started off alone as a man who was simply fed up of seeing the oceans, a lovely natural phenomenon for Shah, filled with plastic. His passion and drive has grown into a steady group of volunteers who dedicate two hours every Saturday and Sunday in the pursuit of a clean, plastic-free ocean. "All stakeholders must have to come forward, this includes the citizens, the government, the NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations), the environmentalists, you know…United Nations Environment, UN, everybody must come on the ground level. We have too many laws, too many policies, less enforcement, so what we are doing is enforcing the law actually," Shah says. Along with hundreds of volunteers, Shah has picked up over five million kilograms of trash, mostly plastic, from the beach. Wearing hats, gloves, face masks, and smiles on their faces, the volunteers also include foreign tourists. Ines Lemberger, a tourist from Germany, was shocked to see the state of the environment. "Oh God…to me this was the most shocking place I've ever been to actually, I mean, really, it's horrible. Especially when you're from Germany (which is) such a very clean country, and then (it is) even worse to see how all this trash lands in the ocean and makes me really sad," she says. Lemberger is, however, happy that the clean up mission has local support. But New Delhi-based group New Delhi Rising finds it hard to pull in the same numbers. Founder Nakul, who only uses one name, started the clean up group in 2014, just before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) in October that year. And while the conversation around cleanliness in the country has certainly increased, Nakul still finds it hard to get people out cleaning each weekend. He has received help from students of The Indian School in New Delhi, who volunteer on a regular basis as part of the school's citizenship program. Nakul says he believes people need to realize that the garbage situation is one that the government alone cannot fix. "It only takes two hours, doesn't take money, it only takes will power and I hope more and more citizens take inspiration from all the work different groups around India are doing, and just come out and take their own local community, and do something," he says. According to New Delhi based Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, Delhi alone produces 15,500 tons of trash every day. "A major problem, I would say, with waste management in India, is that people are not even aware of how big the problem is," says Chitra Mukherjee, Head of Programmes at Chintan. "I mean, unless you are actually working in this sector and you are actually involved in environment, you don't even know that…you're basically sitting on a time bomb," she adds. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b270f5a732e74d940c13aac259fa3883 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork