Environment at eastern beaches improves

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Volunteers collect garbage along the coastline of Dongchong and Xichong beaches in Dapeng New Area on Dec. 27, 2020. DT News

Volunteers from several environmental protection public-benefit organizations walked along the coastline of Dongchong and Xichong beaches in Dapeng New Area recently to check the situation of graffiti on rocks and garbage treatment.

The environment problems along the coastline have been taking place for quite a while at Dongchong and Xichong beaches.

Renting a boat is an available transportation option for tourists who want to make their way back after walking along the coastline of Dongchong and Xichong beaches, due to a lack of exits along the coast and having no shuttle buses on the coastline.

Driven by business interests, some local residents spray-painted their contact number on rocks along the beaches to advertise their businesses renting boats.

Meanwhile, garbage accumulation worsened as the number of visitors surged. Some trash found its way into the water by the winds and waves causing coastal pollution. And some cleaners burned trash on the beaches which released poisonous gas and left behind some scorched black rocks.

After multiple reports, departments of Dapeng New District began taking measures to clean the graffiti and are considering setting up new well-designed signs at the beach for boat services.

Batches of volunteers from several environmental protection public-benefit organizations checked in on the progress recently. They found that the paths along the coastline of Dongchong and Xichong beaches have almost been cleared up.

They offered suggestions to further improve the environment, including adding shuttle buses to run across Dongchong and Xichong during the weekends and holidays to solve the problem that tourists can only walk back or take a boat to return to their cars or take buses.

“Compared with renting boats, taking shuttle buses is safe and economical, and can help get rid of graffiti,” a respondent of the new area said.

The volunteers also suggested using more billboards to remind visitors to sort garbage and not to litter, and setting up U-Stations to organize volunteers to guide the work.