02 July,2011 06:35 AM IST | | Rinkita Gurav
As beachgoers thronged Juhu to glimpse the vessel, they left a heap of garbage in their wake. Now, civic body clears the messu00a0-- some 30 odd tonnes of trash, tarballs, oil and all
Even though the samples collected from Juhu beach have showed no traces of oil, the BMC, paying heed to the complaints of oily lumps by visitors, has decided to undertake a clean-up drive in the coming days.Since the rusty MV Wisdom came to a standstill in the waters off the beach, the beach started looking like a dump yard, with garbage and oily sediments casting a jacket of slime on the water and the sand. Though officials have ruled out any leakage from the vessel, it has attracted a flock of curious onlookers, who have been littering it with trash. "The work would begin in a few days and it would take 2-3 days to make the beach spic-and-span," said BMC's Chief Engineer of Solid Waste Management, Bhalchandra Patil.
Messy business: MV Wisdom has attracted a flock of curious onlookers,
who have littered the Juhu beach. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi
Civic officials said they meant to take care of the coastline contamination sooner, but it was delayed because of the appointment of a new contractor. "The previous contractor knew what had to be done. The new one got delayed in carrying out the clean-up work," Patil said. Following MiD DAY's article ('Is Wisdom spewing oil into the Arabian Sea?', June 28) on a possible oil slick because of the cargo ship, the State Secretary for Environment Ministry, Valsa Nair Singh, had directed the local Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) staff to collect samples from the beach. "The report states that the oil present in the sea is below detectable limit. But still we would test water samples twice a day," said Singh.
30 tonnes a day
Patil further mentioned that on a normal day, generally 10 tonnes of garbage is collected from Juhu beach. But during the initial days of the monsoon, it becomes thrice that figure. "During monsoon the flotsam is washed up along the shore with oil residue and tarballs. It is an annual phenomenon. We'd clean it up." A local fisherman from Khar Danda, Gangaram Teli, said, "I have been coming to this beach for over four decades and I am sure it is oil that washes over our feet." Many share his conviction.
Dr Shankar Gajbiye, Scientist In-Charge of the National Institute of Oceanography, Mumbai, says, "In the monsoon, due to the winds the floating material along with oil leaked by several ships in the inner sea is washed to the shore. It forms tarballs which do not cause much harm to the marine life." The stranded 147-metre long Wisdom has no leakage and the four tonnes of oil it is carrying in its hull has not spilled, added Singh.
Tarball
A tarball is a blob of petroleum that has been weathered after floating in the ocean. Tarballs are an aquatic pollutant in most environments, although they can occur naturally and as such are not always associated with oil spills.
