IF you go to the beaches on the weekend or any other day for that matter you will notice something strange. The water and sand are not as visible as the trash.

Every beach in Sindh and Balochistan seems to be littered. People think its ok to enjoy themselves by the sea and leave their leftovers, paper plates and other kinds of garbage. It is sad that they have an ‘I don’t care’ attitude because if you don’t clean up this mess who will?

Last week I went to Gadani, a popular picnic spot in Balochistan, and was disgusted with the amount of soft drink bottles, paper cups and plastic bags I found all over the beach.

Do people not care about the impact this will have on our marine life? Forget marine life, there will be a point where we won’t have any beaches to go to because every place is going to be filthy.

I feel that we can go on and on about climate change and the impact of plastic waste on marine life but people refuse to pay any attention to it.

According to studies by World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan, on some beaches such as Clifton beach or Sea View as it is popularly known, more than 50 per cent of the garbage is plastic.

Even remote beaches along Pakistan’s coast, such as Kund Malir and Gwadar, are littered with plastic which is essentially killing our marine life along the coastal and offshore waters.

The report estimate that there is around 6.4 metric million of trash — more than half is is plastic and is dumped in the world’s ocean every year. On the other hand, another report claims that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution. Additionally when plastic is consumed by those animals, as a result, it reduces their stomach capacity and eventually leads to their death.

In order to save marine life, the authorities concerned should spread awareness about why littering is bad and should ensure that trash cans are used on the beaches.

We need to clean up our own messes before it is too late.

Noor Shah Saleem
Hub, Balochistan

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2019