Mokokchung, March 21 (MTNews): In an attempt to raise awareness about how dumping waste in the rivers of Mokokchung urban area affects the rural livelihood downstream directly and indirectly, the Chungtia Senso Mungdang along with Sabangya Compound Executive Committee and Sabangya Compound Lanur Telongjem initiated a cleanliness drive along Milak river which flows through the village’s domain on March 18 last.
As the world celebrates ‘World Water Day’ today, the awareness raised by Chungtia village should not be ignored; and a reality check must be undertaken on the waste management in the urban area and more work needs to be pursued in order to awaken the consciousness of the people about importance of keeping rivers clean.
Milak River is a major water source for Chungtia village, and several other villages, from where they obtain water for consumption, field irrigation and aquatic resources.
However, according to Imkongchiba, President of the Sabangya Compound Lanur Telongjem, over the past few years, the water became unfit for drinking as plastic waste and other garbage polluted the water body making it extremely toxic that even the fish population diminished and thereby affecting many lives and their livelihood directly.
The organizations, therefore, found the necessity in making the urban dwellers of Mokokchung aware about the consequences of them dumping plastics and other solid waste in the rivers by undertaking a 10 Km cleanliness drive along the Milak River.
Plastics, because of their versatility and wide range of applications, both industry and society are heavily reliant on its usage which makes it one of the world’s greatest environmental problems. Since plastics stay in the environment for hundreds of years, it chokes marine life and propagates up the food chain. As per “The Ellen MacArthur Foundation” report on the New Plastics Economy, it is estimated that 100 million marine animals die each year due to discarded plastics and that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans.
“It would be great if the district administration machinery such as MMC take a much closer look at the waste management and the dumping site over there and ensure that no garbage is further dumped in the river,” said Imkongchiba to Mokokchung Times. He then further asked if measures are being done to mitigate the menace of plastic pollution.
Millions of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish are reported to be killed every year by the ingestion of plastic bags. Moreover, according to the International Agency for Research and Cancer (IACR), plastics like vinyl chloride are considered carcinogenic to humans and mammary carcinogen in animals.
“We feel that it would be great if the administration can think about recycling plastic waste which will not only reduce the pollution but even contribute in generating revenues,” he suggested.
As of now, plastic products get manufactured, bought, used briefly, and then thrown away making it highly unsustainable. According to a ‘Science Daily’ report, globally, only 14% of the plastics reach the recycling plants where only 9% gets recycled, which means the leftovers are disposed of in fragile ecosystems while 40% end up in landfills which contribute to huge economic losses. And the story of Chungtia village could just be a minute example of this looming disaster.
As scientists and environmentalists continue to work on tackling the issue on a global level together with the industrialists, efforts must be made by every organization – small and big – in ensuring that plastic is disposed of using modern approaches such as Plasma-Assisted Pyrolysis. In fact, recent researches have shown that plastic wastes can be used in paving roads, wood plastic composites and using plastic materials as an alternate fuel or raw materials in cement plants.
Plastic menace is common to all nations but is something that can be tackled only through proper awareness and education with contribution from all sections of the society, irrespective of which corner of the world we are from. In fact, governments and administrative bodies should also focus on encouraging research on waste plastics while objectively dragging the plastic towards a circular economy.