Come October, machines, not humans, will clean Goa’s beaches, which see over 2.5 million visitors annually. Goa’s beaches, perhaps the country’s most popular beach stretch, will now get around 40 mechanised beach cleaners, which will be first tried out on Calangute and Colva, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said.
According to Parulekar, initially only two beaches, Calangute in north and Colva in south Goa, would be slotted for mechanised beach cleaning. “It is on trial basis. We choose two beaches which receive maximum number of tourists… The rest of the beaches will follow,” Parulekar said.
Goa has a coastline of nearly 105 kms. Of late, its beaches, though immensely popular, have been in the news for being dirty. Garbage lined in face of poor management and cleaning despite the State Government spends over 1.5 crore annually on manually cleaning the sandy environs.
The Minister claims that the mechanised beach cleaning process will manage to take care of beaches more efficiently.
“It is a holistic management process, which we want not just cleaning and dumping of garbage,” Parulekar said, adding that the mechanised beach cleaning process could start by the time the season begins to open up in September this year.
The Minister also said that the terms in the tender also specify that the shortlisted frims will not only have to machine-sweep the beach, but also take care of allied hygiene and garbage management issues like segregation of waste, disposal of degradable and bio-degradable waste as well as composting whatever organic waste is collected.
Parulekar also said that beaches, which are environmentally extremely sensitive, especially Morjim, Agonda, Mandrem and Galgibaga beaches, where Olive Ridley turtles are known to nest annually will be kept out of the purview of mechanised beach cleaning.
An increasing number of tourists heading for Goa’s shores and nightlife have taken toll on turtle nesting sites over the last decade. While in 2001 there were 33 turtle nesting sites at Morjim beach in north Goa, the year 2011 reported only 11 —the worst, since the turtle conservation movement formally started in Morjim in 1996.
Apart from beaches, the sand stretches are home to shellfish and hordes of tiny sand crabs, which live in the porous sand pockets, among other species of fauna.
Goa annually attracts over 2.6 million tourists. Foreigners, from Russia and UK, account for half a million tourists, who flock to the State in order to escape the harsh European winter and bask in the mild winter sun on Goan beaches.