Beach tourism both domestic and international has really picked especially during the festive holidays all through to the new year, there’s one major setback, The Beach Plastic Pollution Crisis. About eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the ocean yearly, according to the UN Environment Department
The plastics endanger fish and birds and other creatures, who mistake it for food or become entangled in it, Marine pollution is increasingly becoming a problem along the Kenyan coast. Heavy metals and organochlorine pollutants have the potential to damage the delicate marine ecosystem with the result that the country’s important foreign exchange earner – tourism – could seriously be affected.
Plastic waste has also entered the human food chain with health consequences that are not yet fully understood, I have been taking evening beach walks and the state of things is disturbing, despite the ban in plastic bags, the crisis of plastic bottles needs to be looked into and drastic measures implemented.
Ban the pep bottles and plastic related packaging, collect and recycle what already everywhere in heaps and pits, and impose a rather unreasonable penalty for producing, handling or being in possession of plastic.
The coastal zone resources are however under increasing pressure due to a rapidly growing population. Population growth has resulted in increased demand for goods and services, rapid urbanization, industrialisation and associated problems of solid waste and effluent discharge in urban centres. Expansion of agricultural activities in the rural areas has continued to open-up indigenous forest cover and riparian zones of rivers such as Tana and Sabaki river basins resulting in increased soil erosion through runoff. This pressure on the resources calls for a deliberate effort to alleviate adverse impact from pollution and ensure sustainable development.
Currently, the UN Environment has partnered with Safaricom and the National Environment Management Agency to establish an end-to-end plastic waste management programme. The partnership will see the creation of a working group that brings together stakeholders, mostly manufacturers, waste collectors and plastic waste recyclers, to formulate a comprehensive solution to hard plastic waste.
Despite all these efforts, it’s up to us ordinary citizens to step up to minimize plastic pollution, littering is not done by any government body but ourselves.
The promotion of mass tourism targeting the coastal area has exerted pressure on, not only the marine resources but also utilities, with the high demand for freshwater, estimated at between 300 and 500 litres per capita-day compared to a minimum requirement of 40 litres per capita-day. While estimated pollution loads due to beach tourist establishments are relatively low, there is always the risk of localized pollution hotspots which can be hazardous to tourists and is of public health concern.
Because throw-away plastic creates environmental pollution and takes fossil fuels to produce, cutting back on its use is important to curb climate change and improve the environment.
Plastic packaging, especially the ubiquitous plastic bag is a significant source of landfill waste and is regularly eaten by numerous marine and land animals, to fatal consequences. Synthetic plastic does not biodegrade. It just sits and accumulates in landfills or pollutes the environment. Plastics have become a municipal waste nightmare, prompting local governments all over the world to implement plastic bag, and increasingly polystyrene (styrofoam), bans.
While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become over-reliant on single-use or disposable plastic – with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute. Every year we use up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags. In total, 50 per cent of the plastic we use is single use. Because of this, it will be wise for Kenyans to make bold steps and consider ways on how we can make changes in everyday lives to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on natural places, forests, wildlife and in our own health.
“Beat Plastic Pollution”, the theme for World Environment Day 2018, was a call to action for all of us to come together to combat one of the great environmental challenges of our time. A healthy environment is essential for a prosperous and peaceful future. We all have a role to play in protecting our environment-the only home, but it can be difficult to know what to do or where to start. That is why last year’s World Environment Day had just one request: beat plastic pollution. If you cannot reuse it, refuse it.
If you need some help with where to start, check out these easy ways you can reduce your plastic usage and keep our oceans clean and healthy.
- Do not litter
- Carry your own litter i.e water bottles, sweet wrappers, yoghurt tetra packs and drop at the closest allocated bin
- Bring or reuse your own shopping bags
- Get alternative shopping bags that are environmentally friendly
- Pressure food suppliers to use non-plastic packaging
- Carry water in your water bottle which you will simply be refilling
- Refuse plastic cutlery
- Pick up any plastic you see the next time you go for a walk on the beach and by the roadside
- When going for a beach picnic or lunch carry your food in reusable containers
- Say no to straws
- Give up chewing gum while at the beach
“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive. In this century he has to realize that in order to survive he has to protect it.” Jacques-Yves Cousteau Here we celebrate the unsung wildlife heroes in the grassroots doing remarkable work to conserve our wildlife heritage, Get to learn about wildlife from a ranger/ ecologist in Kenya a freelance eco-traveler, experience the diverse cultures and African heritage from the natives and take an adventure to new destinations to learn about rare attractions that are hardly talked about and to top it all up some of the best wildlife photographs that will make you reconnect to your wild side appreciate everything around us and fall in love with the natural world, because “It is not enough to love the natural world; the point is to defend and preserve it.” Edward Abbey
Our wildlife, our responsibility. When it comes to standing up for our wildlife it’s better to be outspoken than unspoken.
People forget marine life is wildlife too. Conservation expounds to them too. Lets be loyal fully to protecting the environment and wildlife. It is in the smallest things. Thank you Abraham for tapping this deadly crisis.
Its very sad to see those marine die due to lack of ignorance…people need to be educated about marine animals
Absolutely right.
Marine life is responsible for more than 50 percent of absorbing the carbon we humans have been emitting to the environment yet most of the developed countries will pollute so much of the seas and the developing countries suffer the consequences. It’s sad we have refused to adapt proper waste management. It is not fair!!
Good piece☺
Thank you Joanne.
We need all the relevant bodies on board and actively engaged to restore our beaches, its such a shame that the trash is being dumped at KWS gate. This is a wake up call
How did we get here?? We as citizens are to blame but at the same time sensitization and awareness should be run by the local government to ensure our beaches are clean and provide litter bins. The vendors and beach boys should ensure the place is clean at the end of the day
The WWF stated that within 50 years, the entire population on the east African coast would disappear as a result of destruction of their nesting grounds, hunting, fishing –net deaths and boat accidents among other reasons.
“Over 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. Sea turtles around the world are eating plastic at an unprecedented rate, plastic bags can bear a striking resemblance to jellyfish underwater and have a tendency to confuse hungry sea turtles,” says the East African Wildlife Society.
UN Environment states that 80 per cent of the oceans waste is plastic which in turn costs Sh800 billion in damage to the marine ecosystems.
In a blue economy report, marine fishing had an annual fish potential of 350,000 metric tonnes in 2013 worth Sh90 billion yet the region only yielded a paltry 9,134 metric tonnes worth Sh2.3 billion.
Therefore, the full economic potential of marine resources has not been exploited, yet Kenya has a maritime territory of 230,000 square kilometers and a distance of 200 nautical miles offshore.
According to UN Environment, every year, around eight million tonnes of plastics end up in the oceans, poisoning fish, birds and other sea creatures. That’s the equivalent of one garbage truck of litter being dumped into the sea every minute.
In April, a sperm whale was found dead on the southern coast of Spain and an autopsy revealed that it was killed by the 29 kilos of plastic found in its stomach.
This excess plastic in the environment prompted the launch of the #CleanSeas campaign by UN Environment during the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali on February 23 last year, to eliminate marine litter, including micro plastics in cosmetics and single-use plastic by 2022.
Last year, Kenya banned the use of plastic bags with hefty fines for anyone using and selling the bags.
According to the Economic Survey, the production of plastics in Kenya declined by 3.8 per cent in 2017, mainly due to the 21.8 per cent decrease in production of plastics bags following the ban.
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The prospects of harnessing ocean and other water resources for economic growth could be endangered if plastic pollution, overfishing and other maritime threats such as piracy are not properly tackled.
And experts in the blue economy sector have cautioned governments to develop workable solutions to these challenges as the world gradually looks towards this part of the earth that previously seemed inhospitable and inaccessible.
Speakers on the second day of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi raised concerns that land-based resources are becoming more stressed and, therefore, the need for countries to quickly address environmental and ecological sustainability.
The issue of plastic pollution in oceans dominated Tuesday’s panel discussions, with the growing human population singled out as one of its drivers.
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