Following a friendly gathering, the Rotaract Club of Colombo North (RACCN) took to cleaning up the Dehiwala beach last Saturday evening (20). Equipped with trash bags and rubber gloves, the club members covered the beachfront in groups as the light waned and locals and tourists made their appearance to enjoy the evening sea breeze.

This was done as part of a larger, nationwide service initiative by the Rotaract in Rotary International District 3220, together with Shraddha TV; ‘CleanUp Sri Lanka 2025’, which sought to bring together volunteers, organisations, and communities to make a positive impact on public spaces and the environment.

The youth community was able to haul in several bags of trash from the sandy areas adjacent to the shoreline, with plastic bottles, discarded footwear, polythene bags, and plastic product wrappers making up the bulk of the haul. Some of the more unsettling finds included discarded sections of nylon ghost nets tangled up on the sands, some now hosting colonies of barnacles after being out at sea for extended periods. Plastic nurdles were also observed swept up on the sand, a reminder of the lasting impact of the 2021 MV X-Press Pearl disaster.

The collected trash was subsequently handed over to the relevant persons for proper disposal.