Mombasa, KenyaHesbon Mwarabu, 54, has been a beach guide and fisherman in Mombasa’s coastal city. He feels so ensconced with the ocean. When his father, also a fisherman introduced him to the trade, he was just 20 years old. This has allowed Mwarabu to build a home and educate his four children with the proceeds.
A decade ago, the ocean and beaches were awash with plastics. He and other fishermen were then forced to pick up trash from the ocean.
Mwarabu was concerned that the regular pollution of the ocean and its environs was threatening the marine ecosystem around which his life revolves and his source of income. He told Al Jazeera that when the ocean and beaches become polluted, it can have a devastating effect on our business. Tourists don’t like dirty environments, and marine species can’t survive in polluted waters.
Mombasa, Africa’s most famous tourist destination, is Kenya’s pride. It hosts hundreds of thousands each year. Its beaches, hotels, and vast coastline that borders the Indian Ocean promise a wonderful experience.
The city currently produces 19,000 tonnes of steel. Waste10% of it is plastics. These materials end up at the marineAccording to Ilhan Abbas, chief officer of the Mombasa County Environment, ecosystem is important.
It used to be worse.
In the beginning, the county environment department would collect and transport plastic waste to the main dumping location. Abbas explained that when the dumpsite becomes overflowing, rainwater makes the waste flow back to the oceans and beaches.
Plastic waste was not the only waste that littered beaches. Food waste, paper, and shopping bags were also part of the daily garbage. All the waste from dumping areas would be washed into the ocean during the rainy season.
A common goal
However, things are changing.
Today, four teams of youth and women are working together to collect waste along the beaches three days a week. This is an initiative by The Big Ship, a community group.
Twelve years ago, six environment conservationists founded the community-based group in Mikindani, a low income neighborhood in Mombasa. They had only one computer, no staff, no funding and no physical office when they started.
Their first meeting place was the sitting room Bosco Juma (a fisheries biologist). Juma stated that they shared a goal to eliminate the plastic waste on Mombasa beaches. However, they did not know that they would achieve so much in 10 years.
Big Ship mobilizes Mombasa residents to collect plastic yoghurt containers dumped along the coastline and beaches. The yoghurt cups can then be used to propagate seedlings, which are then transplanted into different sections of the mangrove forest in an Adopt a site project.
The Big Ship project has significantly reduced the amount of plastics found in our environment by 60%. [their]Abbas stated that they had found a way to the main dumping ground.
The group also assisted with the reforestation at Tudor Creek, 6km (4miles) south of Mombasa. There, large sections of the mangrove forest were also destroyed. It is one of the most important habitats for the marine life cycle and is one of the largest mangrove-tidal creeks in Kenya.
Over the years, Tudor & Kenyas 54,000 ha (133,437 acres). mangroveThe 18 forest blocks consisting of 18 forests have been affected by human activities, including the massive cutting of mangroves to fuel, charcoal, and construction.
It is estimated that Kenya has grown by 50% in the past 50 years. LossHuman activity has destroyed nearly half of the mangrove trees in the area. In 1997, the government prohibited the construction of mangroves. Today, some coastal areas have been allowed to lift the ban.
Big Ship has partnered with the Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute and the Kenya Forest Service to complete its reforestation program.
Jenifer Situma (head of KFS operations in Mombasa), said that the project has led to the planting of more then 300,000 mangrove seedslings on 50 hectares (124aces) with 285,000 of them already sprouting a 95% rate. Survival rate.
Situma stated that the project has also helped KFS to keep the mangrove ecosystem free from the threat of plastics. She said that the mangroves were initially used as dumping grounds for plastics, which really affected the ecosystem.
After transplanting the seedlings to the forest, the yoghurt cups can be reused again and again. Juma says that a single cup can be used up to 50 times to propagate seeds, as opposed to polythene bags, which can only be used once.
Juma stated that in the first two-months of 2022, we already collected 5,000 plastic yogurt cups. This shows just how serious the problem of plastic pollution is on the Kenyan coast.
He claims that the organisation collects twice as many yoghurt cups each year along Mombasa’s beaches. It has collected 150,000 of these cups in a span of 10 years.
Josphat Nguu, a marine biologist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institutes (KMFRI), says that the project has also had an effect on the restoration of aquatic life. This includes almost half the corals that were lost.
She stated that the ocean’s plastics are harmful to aquatic species. Mangroves can be cut and have an immediate effect on corals. This affects all aquatic life.
Big Ship also trains community members on beach management and advises them to beekeepers in the mangrove forests.
Experts believe beekeeping is helping to keep mangrove trees safe, since the community does not cut them for charcoal-burning or fuel.
Jason Runo, a Nairobi-based independent expert in apiculture, said that they initially cut trees to create income. Later, they sold the charcoal. They now have to protect the forests because they know that without the forest, their beekeeping venture will collapse and they won’t have any income.
Mwarabu added that even the youth are engaged, as everyone is busy doing something.
