A worker cleans up garbage at Binjiang Avenue in Pudong on Dec. 17. [Photo/Xinhua]

Strong winds dumped water hyacinth, beverage bottles and white foam on a large chunk of Binjiang Avenue in the Pudong New Area over the last couple of days, leaving local environmental officials with a huge task of cleaning up the mess.

The Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau said yesterday that the extraordinary garbage belt was formed by strong winds and the rise in the water level and were not dumped intentionally by anybody. Officials said winds swept away the wastes from ditches elsewhere in the city.

During low tides every day, workers have been seen clearing away the huge numbers of wastes.

Earlier, officials had said the outbreak of water hyacinth this year was bigger than ever.

A warm autumn has been blamed for the steep increase in the amount of water hyacinths in the rivers.

The leafy greens were spotted as early as mid-July in some river courses, which is nearly a month earlier than usual, the bureau said.

The task of removing the water hyacinths is likely to continue through January, officials said.

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