Scuba diving teams clear litter at sea

Visakhapatnam: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Commissioner CM Saikanth Varma said the corporation will undertake a programme to remove litter at Sagar Nagar, Mangamaripeta and Yarada, RK Beach and Rushikonda Beach in collaboration with scuba diving teams.

Contributing to the Eco-Clean, Eco-Blue, Eco-Zero plastic programmes, Platypus Escapes Scuba Diving Centre took out the waste in the sea at Rushikonda beach area here on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, the Commissioner said Eco-Vizag endeavour was taken up to make Visakhapatnam an eco-friendly city.

The beach cleaning programme was an example for all and it was commendable to extend divers support to the GVMC, Saikanth Varma said. Further, the Commissioner mentioned that beach cleaning machines have already been made available to remove waste from the coastal areas and regular cleaning programmes are being carried out.

The Commissioner called upon other scuba diving organisations in the city to do their bit in clearing litter from the beaches.

As waste continues to pile up in the seas, scuba divers recovered around three tonnes of plastic, cloth and other waste at Rushikonda beach.

Scuba divers organisation representative Subhash Chandran mentioned that the service will be continued if GVMC technical teams extend their support in cleaning the sea.

GVMC UCD project officer D Lakshmi, zonal commissioner Kanaka Mahalakshmi, chief medical officer Naresh Kumar and AMOH N Kishore were present.