The Cox’s Bazar beach environment is being polluted by tourists’ waste
At Cox’s Bazar the green gardens of the row of trees along the Marine Drive Road, the wide blue river on its western side, the fine sand playing with the wind – hundreds of travelers come here for the natural beauty on weekends.
Sonapara Sea Beach is a part of the world’s longest beach of Cox’s Bazar under Ukhia Upazila, Cox’s Bazar. Day by day this beach is popular with local visitors and tourists. People of different ages from different areas come here with their loved ones and families.
In particular, the beach is full of local youth tours and evening chats in the shack shops built around the beach. Apart from this, people of different ages enjoy playing beach football on Fridays and Saturdays.
But along with the popularity, the environment of this beach is getting polluted.
Recently, it has been seen that garbage is being dumped everywhere. The beach is covered with harmful waste like plastic bottles, chip bags, food packets, polythene, paper, and tin cans. Visitors are throwing them everywhere.
Even human excrement has been found in sandpits, like public toilets. Apart from this, the waste food thrown by the visitors after the meal is mixing with the waves in the sea.
Overall, an unhealthy environment has emerged. The environment is being polluted, and the beach is losing its beauty. Litter and waste at the beach are bad because they make it look ugly and harm marine life. The irresponsible behavior of visitors is causing irreversible damage to the delicate balance of nature, further exacerbating the environmental degradation.
Conscious tourists feel that the natural environment of Sonarpara beach is being destroyed day by day due to mismanagement. If this continues, travelers will turn away.
Sonarpara beach is regularly visited by visitors, but there are no beach attendants or tourist police here. There are absences of guardianship of the authorities. Littering, vandalism, and other destructive activities are not being addressed, causing the beach’s rapid deterioration.
If the environment continues to suffer without oversight and action, the community worries that it will push away tourists, which will have a harmful effect on the people who rely on tourism for their livelihoods.
Jasim Azad, the Organizing Secretary of Ukhia Citizen Council and an environmentalist, highlighted the significance of Cox’s Bazar beach for the country’s tourism industry.
There is a beach management committee for the maintenance of this beach, whose job is to keep the beach clean.
Proper management of the beach is essential to attract the attention of local and foreign tourists. He requested the Upazila administration and related parties to intervene to protect the environment.
The community wants to work with authorities to protect the beach’s natural beauty and make sure it can be enjoyed by future generations. It’s important for everyone involved to work together to deal with the environmental issues and keep Cox’s Bazar beach attractive for tourists.
