A staggering 9,000 kgs of legacy waste was removed from the Energy Park stretch of the Yagamso River, Itanagar, during a cleaning drive on Monday. The drive was organised by the Youth Mission for Clean River (YMCR), in collaboration with the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) district administration, following Sunday’s intense flashfloods that ravaged Itanagar and adjoining areas. This is just from a single area and from a single river. This is definitely a cause for worry. In the recent flashfloods in many areas, massive plastic wastes were seen on the streets, drains, streams and rivers of ICR.
The sheer volumes of these wastages were simply staggering. It shows that there is absolutely no control over how to dispose of wastes, in particular plastic wastes. The people of the ICR are recklessly throwing wastes in the drains and then the drains are directly released into rivers and streams. No attempt is being made to protect these rivers and streams. The Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) regularly collects garbage from the colonies and then disposes of them in the designated dumping area. But still the garbage is finding their way to the drains. The IMC needs to look into it and figure out where things are going wrong.