The journey of River Ganga Clean-up has been an exciting one and it has been more than 3 months now. The team has been regular every weekend in making an effort for a change around our river Ganga. It started with Mullick Ghat and the team has now spread its wings to Gopal Ghat (which covers 3 major ghats) starting 23rd November, 2019. The volunteer strength is increasing every week and it has shown everyone that this initiative is here to stay for long.
"Two days ago was the Ganges River Clean-up Project's 3 month anniversary. I cannot believe the milestones accomplished by our team in such a short time."
- Pauline Laravoire (Founder, Y-East and Sustainability Director at Techno India Group)
The team has already collaborated with some big corporate organisation like PwC,Godrej and Connect for and students from Techno India Group (TIG) has always been a regular visitor to the ghats every week. There were around 100 volunteer last weekend (30th November, 2019) which include around 30 from PwC and 50 from TIG. The initiative is getting bigger and bigger every day and its only because of the amount of the effort put in by the core team of Y-East and Bouddi Solution along with dedicated volunteers and partners that have come along this initiative. Lochie Burke (Founder, Bouddi Solutions) is really excited when he says...
"It is amazed to think that 3 months has passed since we started the project. Taking a look at the incredible impact we have had in such a short period. It really excites me for what is to come in the next 30 months or 300 months for that matter....."
The team has always put in extra effort towards awareness of the local people on dumping the waste on the ghat and a complete no to use of single use plastic. In the last drive, the team also distributed cloth bag to make people use them instead of plastic bags which contributes to majority of waste on the ghat. It is indeed a welcome initiative as only the problems are not highlighted, but solution are coming from the team and it will go a long way in making our holy Ganga clean from all dumped waste.
There are times when the team gets disheartened with the ghat getting more dumped with waste every time after some festival, but the team sail through those phase together and come out fighting the waste. Pauline has been instrumental in guiding the team with her positivity and the energy that she brings every week to the clean-up drive.
She rightly puts it when she says ....
"The journey has just started, but I think we have succeeded in becoming a reference clean-up group in the city, one of the only ones to conduct drives so regularly. And we have also succeeded in setting up solid base for the sustainable,impactful steps that will come next."
To read more about River Ganges Clean-up initiative read our previous Wlog
If you want to know more about this initiative reach out to Enakshi Majumder (Project Manager, Ganges River Cleanup Project) at enakshimajumder7@gmail.com or follow us (Inwaster is WMedia Partner of River Ganges Cleanup Project)