BEACH TOURISM OPERATORS UP IN ARMS OVER NEW TOXIC WASTE DUMPING CLOSE TO THE REEFS
(Posted 18th March 2019)
(One of the dregers seen from the air dumping toxic loads near a coral reef)
Still facing many challenges to upgrade hospitality products and fill beds along the Kenya coast, has an old problem come back to haunt the industry, the dreadful dredgers.
This time it appears not to be the sand harvesting but the dumping of dredged loads into the ocean.
Global regulations would require these loads to be dumped at least 8 kilometres off the coast but a picture taken from the air and received yesterday shows proof that far from it, the toxic loads – allegedly heavily ladden with chemicals which have sunk to the ground inside Mombasa port over decades – are dumped just off the reefs.
This almost criminal practice is likely to spread the dredged mud on to the reef when the tides come in and in the words of a marine biologist, prefering anonymity over concerns of his personal safety should a name be published, a likely cause for poisoning the fish and marine life habitat and ultimately killing off the corals.
Subsequently have demands emerged from across theNorth and South Coast tourism fraternity that the culprits be arrested and charged in court and that marine patrol units of the Kenya Navy and Coast Guard be deployed to ensure no more dumping takes place in waters close to any of the reefs.
Links to relevant articles posted by ATCNews in the past:
https://atcnews.org/2014/11/20/first-dredgers-and-now-trawlers-what-next-for-dianis-reefs/
https://atcnews.org/2014/10/27/reef-destroying-dredger-owned-by-chinese-company/
https://atcnews.org/2016/03/03/chinese-company-accused-of-wilfully-destroying-kenyas-best-beach/
https://atcnews.org/?s=Dredgers+
