Side effects of discarded masks in Indian oceans

 Why are we using the ocean bed as our dumping ground

It’s been a year since the COVID pandemic swept across the globe and changed everything we knew about the world.

The domino effect has made wearing a mask an absolute necessity. However the flipside of the coin, are the millions of masks that are being callously disposed under the sea bed. Adding to the already emerging problem...in the past year over 5,500 metric tonnes of waste have been dumped in seas, oceans and water bodies.

It has created a predicament, that not many are willing to realise… while the ecosystem suffers in silence.

How?

First of all, the dumped face masks pose a huge problem both socially and environmentally!

The masks that are out in the market have been rigorously tested and that’s why they have been permitted, which is why they won't break down easily.

And thus this will pose a big threat to the environment and the ecosystem.

Second of all, what about the marine ecosystem?

The masks and the plastics that are being released into the ocean water bodies can cause huge harm to undersea species.

They could mistake the floating debris as animals and consume them, thus endangering many lives… the plastics would end up staying in the food chain for years to come and eventually impact human health as well.

Last, but absolutely not the least the -masks are being incinerated in village areas or local residents and have seen a major backlash, as a result of

Earlier there have been instances where local residents have put up a fight against waste incinerators.

At this rate, it’s almost impossible to trace or differentiate the discarded face masks that are now so tightly entrentremched in the environment. It’s all not an effect of Covid pandemic, but the situation has certainly been aggravated by it.

It’s also hard to exercise any preventive measures for the same.

So what options are we left with? What do we do? How do we rise above this?

Pradip Burman suggests that there should be more extensive guidelines and a stringent system to govern the use and disposal of single-use personal equipment.

Only then can we hope to alleviate the situation.