KERI: In a bid to do his bit for a cleaner Goa, British tourist, John Harris,
recently undertook the cleaning of the beach and picnic site at Keri with the
help of local school students.Local residents say Harris, a regular for some
years to Goa and who stayed this time for four months, did a similar clean-up
exercise during this trip last year as well. The famous, once quiet and clean
beach, with its tall casuarina trees, has turned into a dump over recent years,
as picnickers leave behind their trash. In the absence of garbage bins, the
plastic and other wastes litterthe sands.Harris, "worried about the
deterioration of Keri's beautiful shoreline", approached the local community
and the New English High School, and got some hands to help him spruce things
up late last month. The effort, for about a week, saw several bags of waste
collected and handed over to the waste-collecting contractor every day. "Keri
beach is both beautiful and popular with tourists and there should be
signboards to discourage littering and to educate visitors about waste issues.
But there aren't any signboards," Harris said.In recent years the number of
desi-visitor footfalls on the beach have increased. Pointing out that
irresponsible picnickers discard their garbage on the beach, Harris said
plastic wastes, beer bottles, tetra packs, tins and all sorts of other trash
pollute the shore. Local fisherman Santosh Tari agreed, "The beer and liquor
bottles are broken and scattered on the beach making it very dangerous for us
fishermen who often get back from a fishing trip only at night and walk around
barefoot." Local Siddesh Parab added, "We want to enjoy a clean beach when we
go to relax on the shore, instead we are forced to sit in dirty sands. Worse
still, we suffer the threat of getting injured by the broken glass lying
about.""The government can take up a cleanliness drive to clean up the entire
beach. It should also install big dustbins to take care of the trash," said
Tari. Harris concluded, "I started a clean up, but it will be effective only if
the government or the local governing body continues the effort.
