Suchitwa Sagaram to go state wide soon

Thiruvananthapuram: Following the success of ‘clean sea drive’ the fisheries department had implemented in Neendakara harbour, the government has decided to launch similar programmes in all harbours in the state.
Several international agencies, including the United Nations and world economic forum, had congratulated the fisheries department for the drive to remove plastic waste from the sea. The programme, said an official statement, had started in November 2017. Under the programme, over 30 tonnes of plastic waste were collected with the cooperation of boat owners’ association.
The boats that venture into the sea collects food wrappers, plastic water bottles and other wastes that gets entangled in the fishing nets into a bag. The plastic thus brought ashore by fishing boats is given to state public works department and Clean Kerala Mission. A plastic shredding unit has been set up in Neendakara. Almost 20 tonnes of shredded plastic has been stored at the unit for handing over the same to PWD for road topping. As many as 25 women work in the shredding unit.
“In view of the successful construction of plastic mixed road (Keralapuram - Pattanimukku) in Kollam, the Harbour engineering department has decided to use the same technic for works by them,” said fisheries minister J Mercykutty Amma. The cleaning drive, the minister said fish wealth in sea was plummeting due to piling up of plastic waste in sea. The clean sea programme — Suchithwa Sagaram — had received national honour last year.
Apart from boat owners and fishermen, harbour engineering department, society for assistance to fisherwomen units, suchithwa mission, network for fish quality management and sustainable fishing, marine product export development agency have joined the drive.