Gigantic heaps of garbage have washed up on the sandy beach of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, surprisingly at a time when the country’s prime tourist destination remains closed for over three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The garbage, which reportedly washed up along with the waves from Saturday night till the end of Sunday, include rubbish like plastic, electronic waste, nylon fishing nets, and empty liquor bottles.
The rubbish covers the stretch of beach between Kolatoli’s Valley Hatchery point to Darianagar point of Himchhari. A number of marine wildlife, both dead and alive, were also found amid the garbage.
“I saw the garbage after I came to the beach for a walk. It covered almost 1km stretch of the beach. There was no condition to walk on the beach and a strong stench was coming from the waste. I think some unscrupulous hotel owners had dumped the garbage into the sea, hoping it would go away,” Rashed Ripon, a resident of Kolatoli area, told Dhaka Tribune.
The local administration and environment offices have begun cleaning up the garbage.
Md Nazmul Huda, deputy director at the Department of Environment’s Cox’s Bazar office, said they had begun the clean-up at 10am on Monday, with the help of the district administration.
“It may take a couple of days to remove all of the garbage,” he said on Monday.
Nazmul said he had visited the site where the garbage had washed up.
“Several dead sea turtles were also found entangled with the waste on the beach. I suspect that this garbage was disposed from fishing trawlers, and if so, then the garbage will naturally come towards the shore,” he added.
