Mumbai losing its jewel to water pollution: Marine Drive

A few days ago, an impromptu plan landed me and my friends on the Marine Drive (planned plans never work) and we were in for a major disappointment. What our eyes witnessed was water being turned into a dark shade of brown with a long line of what seemed like plastic and other garbage. Surely not the blue water and aesthetic look we were expecting. 

It would always be pleasant when the water from the waves splashes on your face,  but not anymore. We were experiencing worry instead of calmness when we looks at the sea. Having come from far, we sat at the drive anyways, despite the horrifying colour of the water. Our only solace was the pleasant breeze hitting our faces.

I didn't intend to write a blog post on this, so I didn't click a photo as proof. But sharing a photo I could get from Google which is as close as to what we witnessed.

Image source- iStock

Lost in our own thoughts, we were worried about the future of the Marine Drive if this continues. Mumbai would lose one of its main jewels and tourist spot. What has been in the hearts of Mumbaikars for decades is now getting ruined by pollution. For us, it is a flex. People come to Marine Drive for the calmness which they feel after looking at the vastness of the blue waters (among other reasons), but highly contaminated water won't do the trick. The garbage, which we could guess was plastic wrappers, was washing ashore and formed what seemed like a 500m line in the middle of the water body.

The brown water could be a result of the industrial waste being discharged into the water (or something similar, as I don't think there are industries nearby). But what hurt the most was the line of garbage. Some might just be throwing the plastic in the water rather than in the dustbin or keeping it in their bag to discard later. We just joked- people throw their brains in the dustbin, but garbage in the water. Though we all did joke about the garbage, there was an undercurrent of worry and tension. 

The irony is that many people, who come from far (Virar, Thane and beyond, etc.), would wake up at 4am to reach Marine Drive by 6am; but ain't disciplined enough to not throw the garbage in the water. 

People do not realize the damage they are creating unless they do not have immediate negative impacts of their actions, be it on nature or something/someone else. And when the effects do show up, it's often too late and beyond repair.  

When I looked at Marine Drive this time, it really reminded me of the crystal clear blue water in some lakes and seas of Kerala when I visited this April. A lot of it is the civic sense, which seems to be now missing in Mumbai. When I visited Marine Drive in May with my cousins, it was still polluted but now it has reached another level, such that I wouldn't wanna visit Marine Drive again till it gets beautified again. 

Before the Marine Drive loses all its beauty and gets beyond repair, actions need to be taken to control the pollution. Individuals should be heavily fined for throwing garbage in the water (or even the footpath) while the colour needs to be treated in whatever way possible. 

While I till now only discussed throwing garbage in the water, we have been destroying water bodies by throwing in microplastics, even from our homes. We cut off the small parts of the wrapping or plastic packaging, which cannot be recycled. This leads to a lot of plastic waste being dumped in landfills and water, eventually harming nature, water creatures and us humans. A solution to this is not to cut off the small part completely of the packaging and keep it attached so that it can be recycled. Though on autopilot, we do cut the part entirely off, we can consciously try to avoid it as much as we can (I've been trying too).

To conclude, as Abhi and Niyu puts it, ek ke karne se kya farak padta hai, lekin ek ek ke karne se bahut farak padta hai. Aur ye do lines mein sirf ek ka farak hai, and thats the reason why farak padta hai.