Calangute – Candolim beach belt is one of the most affected places amongst all the beaches situated in the north Goa and has reported maximum cases of littering the alcohol glass bottles, mainly the beer bottles that causes injuries to others.
The reports suggest an absence of garbage bins on the benches that causing this menace but it is not the fact. There are cases of visitors littering around despite of the facilities of proper garbage management in several beaches across the state.
Hundreds of thousands tourists visit the north Goa beach belt, during the festivities such as New year celebration, Carnival, EDM Festivals etc. and post covid the Goa has opened up fully for the tourism.
There have been cases reported of drinking and allowing the bottles on the beaches by the shopkeepers across north Goa that causes this menace.
“Visitors leaves the of the empty alcohol bottles on the beaches which in due course of time breaks into the pipes causing the injuries to others due to the exposed glass shards,” stated the Drishti Marine who manages the safety of the tourists on Goa Beaches.
According to them many water sports operators and fishermen have also got injured in the recent past due to the cuts occurring from the broken bottles. “Many cases goes unreported and everyone do not come complain about the injuries,” they added.
There are many cases of injuries due to the broken bottles lying around on the beach belt and many a times it is serious wherein the Ambulance needed to be summoned to take the person to admit in hospitals.
The concentration is more spread across Calangute, Candolim and Baga beaches where domestic tourists flocks in large numbers, stated the report. But now with the time there are cases of littering coming from the south Goa beaches such as Palolem
Meanwhile the stakeholders of the tourism industry have raised a serious concern over this and demanded the immediate implementation facilities of adequate number of garbage bins on the bench.
“If tourists drink beer from a bottle on the beach, will they take the empty bottle back to his hotel? No, they will dump it on the beach or in a garbage bin if there is one in the vicinity,” John Lobo, general secretary of the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS), said while speaking with the media.
He said the previous garbage contractor working under Drishti had placed more bins at short distances from each other for the convenience of tourists.“But the present contractor has removed these because cattle tend to knock the bins down in search of food. So now there are fewer bins,” he added.
The drinking in public and on the beaches is banned by the law in Goa but there is no strict implementation of the same. The report published by Goa Prism states that the then commissioner of the excise had demanded the amendment in the existing law to bring the ban on drinking on the beaches across Goa but nothing concrete was done till date in this direction.
