the goan I network
CANACONA
A group of foreign tourists has once again embarked on a mission to pick up garbage strewn alongside the village road leading to Asia’s pride of beaches, Agonda.
This is the second time foreigners have undertaken the task of cleaning the garbage strewn along the roadside from Keri to Voile-Agonda.
During the last fortnight, the group, made up of about 15 people, had collected heaps of garbage filling polyethylene bags from Dumane to Keri, and deposited the same at the back of village panchayat house.
Angry locals blamed the garbage catastrophe on to the tourism stakeholders doing tourism trade on Agonda beach while also blaming the panchayat for remaining mute spectators to the unsavoury developments.
‘Shame, Shame... to locals... to shack owners who dump the garbage by the roadside. Tourists are coming to enjoy and not to clean our garbage’, said a message along with pictures of tourists during the clean-up which has gone viral on social media, pleading with officials to take immediate action on the garbage issue and keep Canacona clean.
Taking strong note of people’s anger especially on shack and tourism operators, NGO Goenkar, which is fighting a lone battle to keep Canacona clean and green, regretted that no help was forthcoming from Agonda panchayat.
In a statement Goenkar said, “For the last 3 weeks, a group of foreigners from Agonda have been cleaning the Agonda roadsides. We are proud to see that they have been so active in cleaning the locality that they are staying in even though they have no help from the Agonda panchayat and the local community which is indeed a matter of shame.”
Goenkar further added, “A lot of our locals over here raise a hue and cry over foreigners doing business here. But very few of our locals who do businesses spend any time or money in cleaning or caring for the environment. We should all learn from these people on how to care for the environment we live in.”
The Goenkar team which engages workmen in regularly cleaning Palolem and surrounding areas with very little help and support from others added, “If everyone who works and does business over here joins us, then we would be one of the cleanest beaches in the world. This attitude would have benefited everyone, to work, enjoy and live in a clean environment.”
