VIJAYAWADA: A group of more than 150 people, including children, took up brooms and cleaned heaps of plastic waste along with other garbage littering the Kondaveeti Vagu Development Project (water pumping station) in a month-long initiative by Amaravati Walkers and Runners Association (AWARA). This initiative has been named ‘Walklean’.
Speaking to TNIE, AWARA founder Prof Ajay Katragadda said, “The KVD project, with greenery all around, was developed for over three years at a cost of Rs 237 crore, but has now been ignored and forgotten. For the past five months, it has been filled with plastic and other waste. As environment lovers, we could not bear the damage this waste did to the environment, so we roped in other members of the group, along with a few interested children and took up this initiative.”
The members of AWARA have developed a stick with a sharp edge, with which they pick up garbage. “Instead of providing gloves, we thought a stick can be used. With the sharp edge, people can poke into the garbage materials and pick it up without even touching it,” he said.
Many walkers, runners, cyclists, school students and other residents joined hands with AWARA to conduct this initiative.
The group has been conducting cleanliness drives in the early hours of each weekend for the past month, where they cleaned the place while having their morning walk. The group has collected tonnes of single-use plastic along with discarded clothes, coconut shells, liquor bottles and other waste materials.
This apart, AWARA members have also cleaned three parks in the city completely littered with plastic trash and liquor bottles. Post-clean-up, the group performs yoga and children play around, enjoying the clean and safe area.
Chief Secretary L V Subramanyam flagged off the initiative and appreciated the group’s efforts.