Powai Lake Cleanup was conducted by Mumbai based Environmental Organisation Earth5R on 28 April 2018 under the “ACT पवई” program.
The idea was to study the litter that reaches the lake from various sources.
The team included Jahaan Gupta, Ketul Patel, Ishit Patel and environmentalist Saurabh Gupta who cleaned up half a kilometer stretch near Powai Nisarg Udyan and conducted a systematic segregation of the trash.
To their surprise, the team saw a number of cigarette butts, alcohol bottles, wafer and other snacks packages, and a lot of packaging material which should not end up by the lake.
PLASTIC POLLUTION IN POWAI LAKE
Plastic pollution affects land and water both equally. Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed either by mechanical effects, such as entanglement in plastic objects or problems related to ingestion of plastic waste or through exposure to chemicals within plastics that interfere with their physiology.
In addition, Humans are also affected by plastic pollution, such as through disruption of various hormonal mechanisms. Powai Lake has gone through many stages of water quality degradation. The lake water, which used to supply drinking water for Mumbai, is now declared unfit to drink. It supplied two million gallons of water to Bombay (now Mumbai) when it was built.
The government of Maharashtra reports that due to eutrophication of the lake water from untreated sewage and garbage from nearby residential and slum colonies, the lake water is unfit for drinking water use. Hence, the lake is now used for recreation, gardening, cattle washing, and fishing. The water of the lake is also supplied to the Aarey colony and Larsen & Toubro for non-domestic uses.
Earth5R is a Mumbai based Environmental organisation which is working towards the sustainable development of local neighbourhood with help of NGOs, Citizens, and various other stakeholders. It also conducts CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects and events with companies to support sustainable development.
As the team separated the trash they were able to see some of the main sources solid waste. Do these results shock you?
PARTICIPATE
While the team made great progress, one cleanup will not solve the problem. The Earth5R team has decided to make this a weekly project, occurring every Saturday. If you are interested in helping, check out our Earth5R page on Facebook for update
Ketul Patel, Jahaan Gupta, and Ishit Patel hard at work.
The team segregated the waste to collect data.
Various items found during the Powai Lake Cleanup.
Cigarette butts are a huge part of the lake pollution problem.