Cox’s Bazar representative: Marine waste has been floating on Cox’s Bazar beach for a week. This ‘waste flood’ is seen in an area of at least 12 km from Kavita Chattar to Dariya Nagar Point on the beach with the tide. These include torn nets used by fishermen, plastic ropes, bottles, sandals, bags, and medical waste. At the same time, various types of dried vines, pieces of wood, and parts of dead marine animals floated up. On the one hand, the wastes are damaging the environment; on the other hand, they are disturbing tourists walking on the beach.
Oceanographers say that currently Cox’s Bazar Beach has become a source of microplastics. If this waste is not removed immediately, the marine biodiversity will be threatened due to the microplastics created. In addition, it will become a health risk for people in the future.
It is known that the dead bodies of various marine animals are sometimes washed up on Cox’s Bazar beach with the tide. Out of this, in July 2020, two rounds of ‘garbage floods’ occurred in an area of a few kilometers from Kalatali to Himachari. At that time, dead turtles, snakes, and other dead bodies of marine animals floated along with various wastes. In October 2022, in the flood caused by Sitrang, hundreds of tons of plastic waste washed up in the high tide-flooded areas of Cox’s Bazar along with Sonadia beach.
The Nature and Technology Study’ has been working on Cox’s Bazar Beach for a long time. Chairman of the organization Ahmad Ghiyas said that to reduce plastic pollution in the sea, measures should be taken so that land waste does not go directly into the sea. Now the organic and inorganic waste that washed up on the beach is being buried after collection. Landfilling of inorganic wastes such as plastic can cause serious soil pollution.
Cox’s Bazar Additional District Magistrate Abu Sufian, the officer in charge of the beach, said that the city’s hill clay and various wastes are going to the sea through the Bankkhali River. And by the beach, it is coming back again. The situation may worsen during the monsoon season. The Cox’s Bazar district administration has taken various initiatives to control these wastes to protect the beach and seawater environment. Abu Sufian also said that we have kept enough cleaners to clean up the garbage that has washed up on Cox’s Bazar beach for a week.
Director General of Bangladesh Sea Research Institute Syed Mahmud Belal Haider Parvez said that the occurrence of waste on the beach depends on the type of sea surface, including low pressure, wind currents, water circulation (ED), water speed, and other waste, including floating plastic, accumulates in certain places of the sea coast.
Belal Haider said, “Recently we have noticed a low pressure position in the sea; during these low pressure tides, the surface water swells to a great extent, and due to rotation, floating plastic waste in the sea accumulates together and floats on the beach. Where there is a long distance between the vegetation line and the water line, the plastic waste is often trapped in the Sonadia-Maheshkhali seashore from Dariya Nagar as tidal water cannot flow.
He further said that research on the Bay of Bengal’s seasonal eddy formation (water circulation), speed and direction of wind flow, and bottom tropography of Cox’s Bazar coastal area is needed to know more deeply the cause of floating waste. Marine Research Institute scientists led by scientific officer Tariqul Islam have collected samples to find out the source of these wastes.
