Three organizations teamed up on Saturday morning for an event called 360 Clean Up Operation.
GRAME, along with the Kahnawake Environment Protection, Mission 1000 Tonnes and Urban Water Odyssey, organized this water clean-up operation in order to spread awareness and reunite the community to take care of their trash the right way.
“People need to understand that it’s not because we don’t see it, that it doesn’t exist. There is trash in our water courses and in our shores,” said Catherine Houbart, general director of the GRAME organization.
This is a huge problem as the extreme heat episodes are making Montrealers come out more often to cool off by the water in order to get through heatwaves, but they have no idea how their actions can harm them the very next day.
“We have heard that people are diving from the bridge, but what we have found under the bridge into the water is unbelievable and you shouldn’t have to swim there if you knew,” said Houbart.
This isn’t only a matter of water pollution, but it’s also a matter of access to water, as the debris is dangerous for the people.
The divers who volunteered to clear out the trash from the water were able to remove abandoned bicycles, large metals, an anchor and even a mattress from the shore.
“If someone comes here to just do some paddle boarding or swim, they might hurt themselves. But, anything that is not natural, that is modified or that is not naturally presented in nature is something we need to remove from the underwater environment,” said Nathalie Lasselin, chief of divers for Urban Water Odyssey.
However, today was a good start in the right direction as all three organizations have collectively gathered 627 kilograms of waste from the water.