How to clean a beach

The Swacch Beach project, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai. a conversation with Mr. Chander Swamy, the man who made it happen

Do you remember the day it occurred to you that you must do something on this issue? What happened? What triggered your taking up this cause?

For many years, over as long as 20 years, residents of our neighbourhood had been talking of getting together to improve the area. Many sincere attempts were made, but neither funds nor volunteers were forthcoming. Apartment blocks had mostly tenants and they were already paying a monthly sum for maintenance services of the building. They were reluctant to pay an additional sum for the neighbourhood.Over the years the road became busier, with more apartments, more traffic to the beach. The litter and mess kept getting worse.

Where I work, at Rialto Enterprises, we have inculcated a culture for giving back to civic society. For example, we supported a Saidapet school during the December 2015 floods when the entire furniture of senior classes was swept away. Final exams were only a few months away and there were no tables for the students to work at! We collected funds to replace the furniture. Each donor paid for one table and chair, some for more sets. The job was completed in less than a month. All the donors felt a great sense of purpose.

It was around this time that the central government’s Swacch Bharat initiative was announced. We put up a notice in the office asking for volunteers to help clean and green the Thiruvanmiyur beach area. They had to contribute just three hours a week. Transport to and from the site would be provided or reimbursed. 23 number of people signed up immediately. 

What was your dream for this project? Did you visualize the outcome of what it might mean to and others?

Cleanliness was the first priority. I also wanted the beach and the beachside to be safe. No leftover food, no shit, no broken glass, no uneven surfaces. At that time, I did not realize that plastics were going to be such a menace and such a challenge. I thought it just required some planning and methodical execution and all would be fine!

The second priority was greening. Some individual residents had adopted a few trees but there was no concerted effort. I had also recently returned from Seattle in the US, a city big on preservation of natural beauty – it has 55 parks! I got to see how simply and effectively young streetside trees are secured. They are strapped lightly to a stake till they grow to some strength and are then removed. 

How much time did you spend thinking about it, talking about it and then actually doing something about it? Once you decided, what were the first few things you did?

Once I knew what was to be done, I was impatient to accomplish it rightaway. I approached the then Commissioner of Chennai, the dynamic Vikram Kapur, who gave us ready support. He arranged for us to mobilize the Ramky conservancy workers for our zone. We organized them into pairs and set out an attendance register and monitored their work. 

After the Seattle inspiration, I approached the Forest Department, told them that if they planted tree species that would withstand the wind and salty air, we would take care of watering and maintenance.  They agreed and made good their promise quickly. We staked the saplings and in addition, placed tree guards around them to prevent damage from parked motorbikes. We regularly started sending recycled water in tankers from our factory to water the plants.

How did you mobilize support, resources?

By now I was very enthused. I could see that our initiatives were making a visible difference. I received appreciation and encouragement from other residents and offers of help.

Till then I had been spending my own money, especially for the workers’ meals and attendance for the extra cleaning work on Sundays (when visitors to the beach and consequent litter were at their highest). 

I thought now was a good time to seek the participation of other residents. I got an email list from one of them and we met one Sunday morning on the beach. It was a good turnout and all of them enthusiastically agreed to pitch in. 

We worked out costs for extra staff to help the police with traffic management on weekends. You see, as the beach became better it attracted more crowds! 

For the conservancy work, we arranged for sturdy tricycle carts, got clean garbage bins and gave them all a coat of fresh paint, which is now done every six months.  We all know that filthy, stinking overfull garbage bins are unapproachable which is a big disincentive to cleanliness. 

We got a Ramky supervisor monitor the work of the cleaners and most important, worked out simple quarterly incentives for them, such as 5 kgs of rice, or 3kgs of dal and 1 kg of cooking oil etc. At festive times we gave them a saree and a dhoti. Last summer all of them received wall mounted ceiling fans. The residents also contributed to the Ramky workers’ meals on the monthly ‘deep cleaning’ Sundays.

What are the obstacles you might have faced? How did you tackle them?

The longest challenge was relocating the vendors on the beach and the beachfront road. Their stalls were the biggest generators of trash which, helped by the strong winds, found its way to the sea. The humanitarian challenge was also hard. They were adamant that moving them anywhere else would endanger their livelihood. They all had their favourite ‘spots’ and refused to budge.

Fortunately, we found a dead-end lane off the beachfront and relocated them there.  They were all given IDs. The Corporation supplied precious extra bins to deposit the trash and we got the police to monitor their use.  There was resistance from the vendors at first but we were adamant in enforcing the new arrangement.  Luckily for all of us, in no time at all they started doing better business than before and the beach became much cleaner! The vendors are now very protective of their place and will not allow newcomers to enter.

We also encounter residents who ask why they should donate to do a job which the Corporation or other civic bodies should be doing. The truth is that the task is too humongous for these authorities who are permanently strapped for resources and staff. The Corporation Commissioner said very early on that the goals of Swachh cities can be attained only if citizens and corporates collaborate will the civic bodies, in raising awareness of the problems, in enforcement, practice and funding. The Companies Act that requires corporates to set aside 2% of net profit for approved CSR activities is a huge help in this matter.

Did you have a clear plan from the beginning or did it evolve?

It evolved as we got increased support from the authorities and the residents. The CSR/NBR Rialto team soon began to brainstorm once a month on a Saturday morning, 11-12 noon. This is how we designed lighter trash bags for the beach for the cleaners to carry up litter on the broad sands to the big bins on the roadside. We improved the designs of the tree supports and tree guards. A horticulturist friend walking on the beach offered to donate panchakavyam, the chemical-free liquid fertilizer. In turn, we arranged for recyled water to be brought in tankers for watering the trees. Soon the trees grew taller, lush, green and strong.

At one point, older walkers began to search me out to ask if a toilet could be provided. We found a spot at the northern end of the beach and got approval to build from the resident living nearest to it. We then sought help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They agreed to build the toilet but said maintenance would have to be done by us.

Two toilets, with an overhead tank for water supply, were built within six weeks. We put in hardy plants around it to make it look attractive and ensure some privacy for users. We appointed a paid cleaner from 6am to 9 am and 3pm to 9pm daily with one weekday off. It is today a showpiece of the Chennai Corporation, the only continuously maintained public toilet in the entire city.

Doing something for a public cause is obviously different from working at a corporate job. How did you adapt your leadership style to this project?

I do this exactly as I do my fulltime job, using lessons I have learnt in manufacturing and on the shop floor. Being hands-on and keeping track of details, delegating to team members who have the same work ethic, rewarding ingenuity, hard work and results. In addition, we keep constant contact with civic authorities without whose help no environmental improvement is possible. We also emphasize taking care of the last-mile conservancy worker who has to do the most thankless job of all. 

The only difference is that we are not responsible to a principal or customers or the stock market, only to ourselves. For the same reason we are even more demanding of team members. There’s no room for slackening.

There must have been moments of frustration. Did you ever want to give up? How did you tackle them?

It’s been five years. While I have had moments of frustration I have never once thought of giving up. I’m not a quitter. We keep all initiatives going. Some go on the back burner for a while but we never take our eyes off them. When an opportunity to implement them presents itself we move them forward immediately. I’ve been trying to get the uneven beachfront road re-surfaced for two years but all sorts of regulations threaten to stymie the project. But this is not a corporate job with do-or-die deadlines. I will keep waiting. 

How much of Chander the person did this project bring out. Were there any surprises?

My wife says I am obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness, about being methodical! I’m afraid she’s right. This project definitely feeds my fetish.

I have observed that every head of business, every potential donor, has one or two favourite cause or charities that touch a deep personal chord. NRIs with aged parents in India are the largest donors to senior citizen homes. People who grew up on farms or small cities with large compounds are setting up chainstores of organic vegetables. Right here in Chennai, CavinKare’s C K Ranganathan, an avid animal lover who has a veritable menagerie in his sprawling home, has recently announced that he is setting up 100 veterinary hospitals across the country, from personal funds that have nothing to do with his line of well-known personal care products. 

Not-for-profit work thrives when it springs from an innate desire to make a difference in that particular field. I cannot tell you how exhilarated I feel when I see how our neighbourhood used to be and how it is now.

 On public attention   Newspaper reports only increase the confidence, pride and willingness among the residents to cooperate, volunteer and contribute funds to the Swacch Beach effort. Family and friends notice and compliment them on the visible difference in the neighbourhood. I will not be surprised if the value of property here has increased! The conservancy workers too have a renewed sense of self-worth and pride. 

We also put out an article with a Rialto link with all the details of the project since inception, which was widely shared and noticed. 

Recently, the National Centre for Coastal Research conducted a coastal clean-up campaign across all the coastal towns and cities of India. In their report of September 2019, Thiruvanmiyur Beach came up as the only one in Tamilnadu among the cleanest five in all of India. This is the latest feather in our cap. Our residents are overjoyed, especially as it comes from an outside body. Just as the appreciation from the PMO’s office came in 2015-16. 

Learnings The one big learning was about engaging civic authorities. There is this public impression that government officials just collect grade salaries and do the minimum amount of work. This is not true. It is human nature to want recognition, even simple appreciation. A sincere WhatsApp message saying thanks for prompt assistance or timely help or putting in a word motivates the recipient to do more. 

Also, government bodies are often strapped for budgets and resources. Bureaucracy and red tape can be strangulating as well. On one occasion, the Electricity Department was unable to change fused LED bulbs on the high-mast street lamps along the beach because they did not have access to a crane. There was only one crane and it had been issued to the Marina EB office, and was not going to be available for another week. 

A long weekend was coming up and we too needed to have the lights up. I told our zonal EB to please get the bulbs and technicians and I would arrange for the crane. I approached a construction company and paid for the hire of a crane from Rialto’s CSR/NBR funds. Within a couple of hours, the lights were shining again. The EB was happy, our neighbourhood was happy, the visitors, which included seniors and children, were happy. It was win-win all around. 

What might be your advice for other such initiatives? And the people who might be motivated to take up such initiatives?

Set up a generous fund before you begin and start the project in earnest. Money begets money. Private contributions will come if beneficiaries see results. For example, the residents who thought the Corporation should be doing the job we are doing are now coming around to join our team.

This is true for government assistance as well. Send out periodic work reports. Maintain a folder of before-after pictures. Keep records of all work and all costs and share them.

Above all, roll up your sleeves and work very hard. Delegate but watch over the work. This work is back-breaking, unpleasant, thankless and repetitive. Incentivize all roles, from those of cleaners to supervisors to garbage lorry drivers and staff. Get to know them by name. Be kind. Finally, it is their effort that produces the results we seek.

This is what has worked for me and I do not know of any other way to do it!