Waste washed ashore on Cox’s Bazar beach: clean-up begins Wednesday

Cox's Bazar district administration today formed a five-member committee to look into how waste washed ashore and got scattered along the Cox's Bazar beach.

The committee will be led by Mohammed Ashraful Afsar, additional deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district.

Meanwhile, waste that littered the five km stretch of the beach is still lying scattered where it washed ashore Saturday night.

The district administration will launch a clean-up effort in a coordinated way to remove the waste from the beach on Wednesday, ADC Ashraful Afsar told The Daily Star.

"We have begun the work to remove the litter on our own. A massive waste removal campaign will begin from day after tomorrow, engaging volunteers," he said.

"Another thing we must focus on is how the waste landed on the beach. This is very unusual," the ADC also said, adding that the committee will try to figure out the cause behind the incident within one week.

"Many are assuming it to have been caused by foreign ships anchored within our territory. We will take that concern into our account while looking into the matter," Ashraful Afsar added.

Ibrahim Khalil Mamun, chief executive of 'Youth Environment Society', a Cox's Bazar-based environment organisation, told The Daily Star that his organisation was asked to join a meeting tomorrow by the district administration, regarding waste removal from the beach.  

"We will soon join the efforts to get rid of the waste from the beach," he added.

Meanwhile, volunteers of 'Save the Nature', another Cox's Bazar-based environmental organisation, rescued and released around 160 turtles while around 20 more were found dead at different points along the beach, Moazzem Riad, chairman of the organisation, told The Daily Star.

Huge volume of waste washed ashore along around five km stretch of Cox's Bazar sea beach -- from Dorianagar to Himchhari -- and has been there since Saturday night, raising concern among people since pollution of such large scale was never seen before at the beach.

Civil rights platform 'Jonogoner Chattogram' has called upon the government to seriously look into source of the waste as it poses grave threat to public health and environment.